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THE HOUSE OF CECIL 




Photo Emery Walker 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEV, K.G. 



Gheeraedts 



THE 



CECIL FAMILY 



BY 



G. RAVENSCROFT DENNIS 



ILLUSTRATED 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1914 



-^/t^cTc?? 



/ /S 



306 



PREFACE 

The house of Cecil rose into eminence in the 
middle of the sixteenth century, for the latter half 
of which Lord Burghley was the foremost states- 
man in England. His sons, Thomas, Earl of 
Exeter, and Robert, Earl of SaHsbury, founded 
the two branches of the family which still have 
their seats at Burghley and Hatfield. After the 
death of Lord Salisbury in 1612, no Cecils with 
any great claims to distinction appeared in either 
branch until the middle of the nineteenth century, 
when the late Marquess of Salisbury, the " greater 
Cecil of a greater Queen," arose to prove that the 
spirit of his ancestor was only dormant. 

Thus by far the greater part of this record is 
taken up with the life story of three great men — 
Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, and the third 
Marquess of Salisbury. Of Burghley many lives 
have been written, and I cannot pretend to have 
discovered anything new about him. So far as I 
know, however, no separate biography of Sir 
Robert Cecil exists, and the chapters devoted to 
him, inadequate as they are, contain a good deal of 
material gathered together from various sources for 
the first time. Since this book is intended to be a 
history of the family, rather than of public events, I 
have endeavoured to lay special stress on the private 
life and character both of Burghley and his son. 



vi PREFACE 

Of the late Marquess of Salisbury, no full 
biography has yet been published, the official Life 
by Lady Gwendolen Cecil being eagerly awaited. 
But the history of his public life, at least, is 
common property, and the main outlines of his 
character are well known. His many points of 
resemblance to Lord Burghley have not, I think, 
been brought out before. 

For convenience, the history of the elder branch 
of the family — the Exeter line — has been told first. 
Thus the life of Lord Burghley is followed by 
chapters on Sir Thomas Cecil — a man of no great 
attainments, but of a straightforward and engaging 
disposition, who has been unduly depreciated by 
previous writers — and his son Sir Edward, Vis- 
count Wimbledon. A single chapter is sufficient 
to chronicle the later fortunes of this branch. 
The history of the Salisbury line begins with the 
life of Robert, the first Earl, and ends with that 
of the late Marquess. The record of the two 
intervening centuries is again easily contained 
in one chapter, which, however, is not without 
elements of human interest. 

I have to thank Miss Constance Jacob for her 
zeal in unearthing information, especially about 
the less important people whose lives are here 
recorded ; and Mr. S. H. Morgan for reading the 
proofs and helping me in many ways. 

G. R. D. 

LUSTLEIGH, 

April, 1913 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Founding of the Family . . . i 



II. William Cecil, Lord Burghley 

III. William Cecil, Lord Burghley — continued 

IV. William Cecil, Lord Burghley — continued 
V. Thomas Cecil, First Earl of Exeter 

VI. Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon 

VII. The Exeter Line .... 

VIII. Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury 

IX. Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury — 
continued ...... 

X. Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury — 
continued ...... 

XI. The Salisbury Line .... 

XII. The Third Marquess of Salisbury . 



15 
36 
60 

79 
103 

121 

146 

171 

193 
219 

247 



XIII. The Third Marquess of Salisbury — continued 279 



Appendix : The Manuscripts at Hatfield . . 313 
Index . 317 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



William, Lord Burghley, K.G. . . Frontispiece 

By Marc Gheeraedts 

Burghley House : North-west View . 

Burghley House : Ground Plan 

William, Lord Burghley, K.G., riding on a Mule 
{Bodleian Library) 

Thomas, First Earl of Exeter, K.G. 

Burghley House : The Stone Staircase 

From a drawing by Joseph Nash, 1841 

Burghley House : The Central Court 

From a drawing by Joseph Nash, 1841 

Robert, First Earl of Salisbury, K.G. 

By Marc Gheeraedts 
Hatfield House : South View 
Hatfield House : Ground Plan . 
William, Second Earl of Salisbury, K.G. 

By Vandyck 
Mary Amelia, Wife of James, First Marquess of 
Salisbury ....... 

By Sir J. Reynolds 

Hatfield House : The Long Gallery 

From a drawing by Joseph Nash, 1841 

Robert, Third Marquess of Salisbury, K.G. 

By George Richmond, R.A. 
Hatfield House : North View . . . . ,, 304 



Facing p. 34. 

54 
76 



134 

144 

176 

204 
208 
220 



240 



256 



272 



THE CECILS 



CHAPTER I 

THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY 

The authentic history of the house of Cecil may 
be said to begin with David Cyssell, or Syssell, 
of Stamford, the grandfather of Lord Burghley. 
Unfortunately Burghley delighted in heraldry and 
genealogy, a dangerous hobby in those days, when 
even the kings-of-arms were not above manu- 
facturing a long pedigree for a man of wealth and 
position. Numerous scraps of pedigrees and 
genealogical notes in Burghley's handwriting exist 
at Hatfield, which, if they prove nothing else, 
show at least that the pedigree which was finally 
accepted was the outcome of a dozen other ver- 
sions which did not work out satisfactorily. 
" The collections made for him," says Mr. Oswald 
Barron, " are suspect in their origin and untrust- 
worthy in detail, and it might have been better for 
the modern genealogist had Burghley been careless 
of his source, for we have on this side the suspicion 
of documents tampered with, and on the other 

c. B 



2 THE CECILS 

side the suspicion that inconvenient fact has been 
suppressed."^ 

According to the official pedigree, David Cyssell 
was the younger son of Richard Cicell of AUt yr 
Ynys in Herefordshire, and his descent is traced 
back through fifteen generations to one Robert 
Sytsylt, who, in the year 1091, assisted Robert Fitz- 
Hamon in the conquest of Glamorganshire, and was 
the father of Sir James Sitsilt, baron of Beauport. 

In the course of four centuries the family is said 
to have become allied by marriage to many of the 
most ancient and eminent families in the county of 
Hereford, such as the Frenes, Pembridges, Basker- 
villes, De la Beres, and others, yet it is a surprising 
fact that throughout this long period its name does 
not once appear among the sheriffs of the county, 
nor among its representatives in Parliament, nor 
even in the list of the gentry of Herefordshire 
drawn up in the reign of Henry VI., though that 
list contains many of the names which are 
enumerated among the Cecil alliances.^ 

To add further verisimilitude to the record, a 
picturesque story is told of a great contention 
between Sir John Sitsilt and Sir William Fakenham, 
which took place in 1333 at Halidon Hill, near 
Berwick. Each disputant claimed a certain coat 
of arms^ as his right, and offered to maintain the 

' Northamptonshire Families {Victoria County Histories), p. 21. 
Mr. Barron's researches have rendered all other writers on the subject 
obsolete. 

2 Blore, History of Rutland (1811), p. 76. 

" Viz., Barry of ten, argent and azure, over all six escutcheons, 
3.2.1. each charged with a lion rampant of the field. The present arms 
of the Cecils. 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY 3 

same by force of arms. Edward III., however, 
referred the dispute to the heralds, who solemnly 
adjudged the right of bearing these arms to 
Sir John Sitsilt, as heir of the blood, lineally 
descended from Sir James Sitsilt, Lord of Beauport, 
who was killed at the siege of Wallingford in 1139. 
In his Workes of Armorie (1597) Bossewell gives 
transcripts of these proceedings, adding that he 
has himself seen in the possession of Lord Burghley 
the original writing, " being written in parchment, 
according to the antiquity of the time." 

Here again it is surprising to find that the names 
of neither of these distinguished disputants occur 
in any of the rolls of arms ; and although such 
disputes did undoubtedly occur in the middle ages, 
yet, to sum up the matter in the words of Blore, 
" the evidence should be very decisive indeed, 
which would induce one to credit such a dispute 
having been maintained by a member of a family, 
concerning at least eleven generations of which 
there does not seem to be a single public record, 
or another private document, even if those noticed 
by Bossewell really existed " — or rather, we may 
say, if they were really authentic. In fact, as 
Mr. Oswald Barron points out, the whole pro- 
ceedings are based on the famous suit of Scrope 
against Grosvenor. 

This version of the ancestry of the family may 
therefore be dismissed. Two other theories must 
be mentioned before we pass on to surer ground. 
One of these was propounded by an ingenious 
Frenchman in the seventeenth century, who 

B z 



4 THE CECILS 

proved to his own satisfaction that the family was 
descended from the Ceciles of Frasne in Burgundy, 
and that David Cecil of Stamford was the first who 
settled in England.^ The other suggestion is that 
of Richard Verstegan, who, speaking of the Welsh 
people, says, "it is not to be doubted but that 
during the space of about 500 years that they were 
subject unto the Romans, divers of the Romans 
settled and mixed themselves among them ; whose 
posterity hath since remained in account as 
being of the ancient families of Wales ; and I 
do find very probable reason to enduce me to 
think, that among others, the honourable family 
of the Cecils, being issued from Wales, is originally 
descended from the Romans." " 

Returning to reasonable probabilities, it may be 
said that although the pedigrees which assign a 
long lineage to the Cicelts or Seycelds of Allt yr 
Ynys are entirely untrustworthy, there seems no 
reason to doubt that a connection did exist 
between them and the Cecils of Stamford. 

The Herefordshire family, " a race of yeomen 
or small gentry," certainly claimed kinship with 
the Northamptonshire Cecils, and made frequent 
requests for preferment and help on the strength 
of the connection. The Cecils on their side 
admitted the relationship and Burghley adopted 

1 See Nares, Memoirs of Burghley, III. App. I. 

"^ Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities, ed. 1673, p. 346. 
Mr Andrew Lang considered that the name of Cecil was derived from 
the Roman Cs'cilius, which may very likely be the case. He also stated 
that Russell Lowell thought the original form of the name was " Sicile," 
and that the family were Jews from Sicily [Illustrated London News, 
November nth, 191 1, p. 762). 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY 5 

the arms of the Seycelds, quartered with Winston 
and Carlyon.^ 

A pedigree, apparently genuine, at Hatfield, 
shows that Philip Seyceld of Allt yr Ynys had a 
son Richard, whose will, October 8th, 1508, is also 
extant. Richard had two sons, Philip, of Allt yr 
Ynys, who seems to have died in his father's 
lifetime, and David, who in all probability is 
identical with the grandfather of Lord Burghley. 

Philip had a son John, who died in 1551 ; and 
John had three sons, the eldest of whom, William, 
died in March, 1598, leaving one son and eight 
daughters. One of his sons-in-law, Paul de la Hay, 
sends Burghley an account of the funeral, from 
which we see that the family looked up to the Lord 
Treasurer as their patron and protector. He 
describes how the eight sons-in-law of the deceased 
and three of his nephews followed the coffin, and 
after them his son Matthew's wife, the eight 
daughters, and William's sister Alice in mourning 
attire. " His wife refused to be present, albeit 
requested and a gown's cloth sent her." After- 
wards a distribution of bread and money was made 
to the poor, " and so," he continues, " in worship- 
ful manner was the funeral celebrated to your 
Lordship's commendations, for that to the credit 

^ Mr. A. C. Fox-Davies has pointed out that the fact that Lord 
Burghley adopted these arms with quartering of Winston only (for 
Carlyon was brought in by Winston) " would seem to indicate the 
probability that that much of the pedigree was within his own know- 
ledge which it may well have been." The mother of the first Philip 
Seyceld, mentioned above, is said to have been a Winston. See The 
Genealogy of the Cecils, in Jack's Historical Monograph on Lord Burghley 
(1904). 



6 THE CECILS 

of the house of Alterinis, I gave out the charge to 
be yours, which amounted to £ioo." ^ 

Matthew, WilHam's only son, was dangerously 
ill at the time and died soon afterwards, not with- 
out having tried to oppose his father's will. Two 
of the sons-in-law also appealed to Lord Burghley, 
on the ground that William, " wishing to continue 
the name of Cecil in that house," had conveyed the 
property to Sir Robert Cecil and his heirs, " to the 
disherison of his own issue." They also accused 
Paul de la Hay and another of the sons-in-law of 
having seized all William's valuable personal 
property " under a disorderly will which was 
written by a servant of the said De la Hay." 

Nor did the altercations and dissensions in the 
family end here. Matthew's widow, Catherine, 
caused great trouble, and De la Hay charges her 
v/ith " playing a lewd part of purpose to raise seed 
to disinherit Sir Robert : with waste of goods, 
with harbouring Lloyd a murderer, of purpose to 
murder him [De la Hay], and with beating and 
starving Alice the aged sister of William Cecil." 
De la Hay, by arrangement with Sir Robert, 
assumed control of the property, which however 
he found so hampered with debts, dowries, heriots 
and legacies that he says, " I shall have as good a 
bargain as an egg for a penny." 

Finally the estate was sold and came into the 
possession of Guy's Hospital. And so we may 
take leave of the Herefordshire Cecils. 

1 Cat. of Hatfield MSS., VIII. 82. The details that follow are also 
obtained from the Hatfield papers. 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY 7 

The history of David Cecil, the younger son of 
Richard, is of greater interest, as he was the 
founder of his family's fortunes. Through his 
grandmother he was related to Sir David Philipp, 
who accompanied Henry VII. out of Wales and 
fought at Bosworth Field, afterwards settling 
at Thornhaugh in Northamptonshire.^ Burghley 
states that David Cecil followed Sir David Philipp 
in the campaign, and " Davy Scisseld " proved his 
will in 1506 as one of his executors. Further 
proof of the identity of Burghley's grandfather 
with the Welsh David is afforded by the fact that 
the former was one of the yeomen of the guard, 
who were chiefly composed of Henry's Welsh 
followers.^ 

As for the differences in the spelling of the 
name, a letter written by Burghley's son, the first 
Earl of Exeter, to his uncle, Hugh Allington 
(November 13th, 1605), is of interest. Some 
libel having been published reflecting on the 
origin of the family, he asks his uncle to search in 
his study at Burghley for documents, and adds : 
" Likewise my Lord my father's altering the 
writing of his name maketh many that are not well 
affected to our house to doubt whether we are 
rightly descended of the house of Wales, because 
they write their name Sitselt and our name is 
written Cecyll ; my grandfather wrote it Syssell ; 
and so in autography [sic] all the three names 

'- Blore, History of Rutland. 

2 A fact discovered by Mr. Oswald Barron, to whom I am indebted 
for many of the details of David's life. See Northamptonshire Families. 



8 THE CECILS 

differ. Whereof I marvel what moved my Lord 
my father to alter it." ^ 

To this it may be added that in the Patent Rolls 
David's name is spelt : Scisseld, Cecille, Cecill, 
Cecile, Sidle, Ceyssell, and the variants Cicyll and 
Cecyll occur in connection with his son Richard. 

David Cecil, then, settled in Stamford, and soon 
established himself as a worthy citizen. He was 
admitted to the freedom of the borough in 1494, 
and was a common councillor and one of " the 
twelve " in the fohowing year. He was alderman, 
or mayor of the borough in 1504, 1515, and 1526, 
and represented it in three Parliaments. In 1507 
he founded a chantry in St. George's Church, 
and in 1509 his name occurs in the list of the 
yeomen of the King's guard at the funeral of 
Henry VII. The same year he was made Bailiff 
of Preston, Uppingham, and Essen dine, in 
Rutland, and of Skellingthorpe, in Lincoln- 
shire ; and in June, 1511, he received the 
appointment of Water-baihff of Wittlesea Mere, 
Huntingdon, and Keeper of the Swans there and 
throughout the waters and fens in the counties of 
Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Northamp- 
ton, for the term of thirty years. Two years later 
he was made one of the King's Serjeants-at-Arms, 
and in 15 17 he secured for his son Richard the 
office of a King's page. He also obtained the 
Keepership of Clyff Park, Northamptonshire, 
jointly with his son, and afterwards received the 
further appointment of Steward of the King's 

1 Collins' Peerage, ed. Brydges, II. 587. 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY 9 

manor of Colly- Weston in the same county and 
Escheator for the county of Lincoln. In 1532 and 
1533 he was Sheriff of the county of Northampton, 
" which," says Fuller, " proves him a person of 
birth, brains, and estate ; seeing, in that age, in 
this county, so plentiful of capable persons, none 
were advanced to that office except esquires at 
least of much merit." ^ 

This long list of appointments and offices proves 
also that David Cecil was a man of much more 
than average energy and perseverance, as well 
as uncommon ability. The old territorial nobility, 
whose ranks had been depleted by the Wars of 
the Roses, were giving place to a new nobility, 
dependent on the favour of the King ; and the 
large landed proprietors began to be recruited from 
the ranks of yeomen and smaller gentry. Both 
David Cecil and his son were quick to take advan- 
tage of the situation, assiduously courting the King's 
favour and acquiring lands, property and influence. 

Lord Burghley has recorded in his MS. Diary 
that his grandfather died in 1536.'^ But there is 
evidence that he was still a yeoman of the guard 
in December of that year, and though his will is 
dated January 25th, 1536, which may have given 
rise to the mistake, it was not proved till March, 
1542. We may conclude therefore that he died 
shortly before the later date. 

He was twice married, first to Alice Dicons, 
daughter and heir of John Dicons, alderman of 
Stamford, who was also connected by marriage 

1 Worthies, ed. 1840, II. 535. 

^ " Anno 1536. David Cecil, avus meus, mortuus est." 



10 THE CECILS 

with Sir David Philipp, and secondly to Joan Roos, 
daughter and heir of Thomas Roos, of Dowsby, 
Lincolnshire, who had twice previously been 
married. By his first wife he had two sons, 
Richard and David, and by his second, one 
daughter, Joan.^ 

Among the various properties which came into 
his hands was the manor of Burghley, near Stam- 
ford, which he bought in 1526 — 1528 from Mar- 
garet Chambers and Thomas Williams junior.^ 
From this estate his grandson took his title, 
after erecting the mansion which still remains 
the seat of the senior branch of the family. 

By his will David left to his wife all his lands for 
the term of her life (she died in 1537) and after her 
death to his son Richard ; among other things 
he left her " twenty kye and a bull," three beds 
and several pieces of silver, to one of which, " a 
piece gilt with the wheat-sheaf in the bottom, the 
which I gave her before our marriage," interest 
attaches since the wheatsheaf is still the crest of 
the Exeter branch of the Cecils.^ 



^ Joan married Edmund Browne, alderman of Stamford, and from 
this marriage was descended Richard Browne (1550 — 1633), the leader 
of the earliest Separatists, hence called Brownists, the forerunners of 
the present Congregationalists. When imprisoned, in 1581, he was 
released by the influence of Lord Burghley, who afterwards presented 
him to the living of Achurch, Northamptonshire. 

2 Victoria County History, Northamptonshire, II. 524. Earlier 
authorities state that the old and new Manors of Burghley were bought 
by Richard Cecil, and a memorandum exists in Lord Burghley's hand- 
writing, in which he gives a history of the manors, and adds " Ista 
Margarita vendidit omnes suas terras Ricardo Cecill, patri meo " (Peck, 
Desiderata Cur iosa, I. 80). Martin Hume, in The Great Lord Burghley, 
and following him Dr. Jessopp, state that Burghley was brought into 
the family by Richard's wife, Jane Heckington, but this is a mistake. 

'^ The Salisbury branch bears a different crest, the origin of which is 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY ii 

He left to his eldest son, Richard, two complete 
feather beds and his best gown ; to his second 
son, David, two more complete feather beds and 
one other bed, a black gown lined with damask, 
a doublet of satin and his green coat ; and to his 
daughter Joan he left £20 to be delivered to her 
mother for her marriage and half of his household 
goods at Dowsby. The residue of his goods he 
left to Richard, against whom David afterwards 
brought an unsuccessful action on the ground that 
his brother had fraudulently deprived him of 
certain lands that were rightfully his. 

Among the bequests made by David Cecil to 
his son Richard was his interest in the Tabard 
Inn, which had come to him from his father-in- 
law, John Dicons. This suggests an explanation 
of a storj^ which obtained a wide circulation in 
later years, to the effect that Lord Burghley's 
grandfather " kept the best inn in Stamford." 
Such an imputation, which first appeared in a 
scurrilous Latin pamphlet issued in the Low 
Countries under the title of Philopatris^ touched 
Burghley in his most sensitive part, as its originators 
no doubt knew. It has hitherto been regarded as 
a mere slander, but it now appears that it may 
have had some foundation in fact. As Mr. Barron 

told in a letter from F. Cordale, July 21st, 1599. Sir Robert Cecil, he 
says, " has found a new pedigree, by his grandmother, from the Walpoles, 
and altered his crest from a sheaf of wheat between two lions, to two 
sheaves of arrows crossed and covered with a helmet, to distinguish his 
retinue from his brother's " {Cal. S. P. Dom.). 

1 Collins' Peerage, II. 587. See also letters from Dr. Ch. Parkins to 
Sir R. Cecil concerning this book, November 22nd and 26th, 1593 
{Hatfield MSS., IV. 419, 423). 



12 THE CECILS 

points out, David was probably only a trustee 
of the Tabard Inn, yet " the inn-keeper's trade 
was then a good one, and it is at least possible 
that he mended his fortunes by following for 
a while his father-in-law's calling." ^ However 
this may be, Fuller's words remain true : " No 
credit is to be given to their pens who tax him 
with meanness of birth, and whose malice is so 
general against all goodness that it had been a 
slander if this worthy man had not been slandered 
by them." 

Richard Cecil entered into his father's inherit- 
ance and still further increased the position and 
the property of the family. As already noticed, 
he was a King's page in 15 17, and in this capacity 
he attended the King at the Field of the Cloth 
of Gold in 1520. He was afterwards appointed 
Groom of the Wardrobe, " a place," says the 
earliest biographer of Lord Burghley,- " though 
now esteemed but mean, yet at that time of good 
account. For then the King did ordinarily make 
himself ready in the robes, where Mr. Cecil being 
chief and a wise discreet man, was in great favour 
with the King, who gave him both countenance 
and living." He profited by the Royal favour, and 
was appointed in turn Bailiff of the manors and 
woods of Torpell, Maxey and Bourne, Constable 
of Maxey Castle, Constable of Warwick Castle, 
and Steward of the manors of Nassington, Yarwell 



1 Northamptonshire Families, pp. 22, 23. 

2 His Life by an unknown member of his household is printed in 
Peck's Desiderata Curiosa. 



THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY 13 

and Upton, all in Northamptonshire. He received 
the reversion of his father's office of Bailiff of 
Wittlesea Mere and Keeper of the Swans for a 
term of thirty years, and in 1539 — 1540 he was 
Sheriff of Rutland. 

In addition to these appointments, he received 
very numerous grants of lands, the most important 
of which, dated July 9th, 1540, included the site 
of St. Michael's Priory, near Stamford, the church, 
and 229 acres of land in the parish of St. Martin's 
Stamford, with the advowson, the convent house 
in Easton, Northants, and the manor and advow- 
son of the vicarage of Wothorpe. He also purchased 
various estates in Rutland, as well as in Kent and 
Lincolnshire.^ 

Henry VII I. showed Richard Cecil a last mark 
of favour by leaving him £100 in his will, but it is 
doubtful whether he profited by this generosity, 
as the legacy was not payable until the King's 
debts had been discharged. He continued to act 
as Groom of the Wardrobe to Edward VI., and died 
at his house in Cannon Row in March, 1553, 
being buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster. He 
married Jane, daughter and heir of William 
Heckington, of Lincolnshire, by whom he had one 
son, WilHam, afterwards Lord Burghley, and three 
daughters : Anne (or Agnes) , who married Thomas 
White of Tuxford, Notts : Margaret, who married 
Roger Cave, and afterwards Ambrose Smith : and 
Elizabeth, who married Robert Wingfield, and 

1 See Blore, History of Rutland, and Barron, Northamptonshire 
Families. 



14 THE CECILS 

afterwards Hugh Allington. William was also 
twice married, so that Richard's four children 
between them underwent matrimony seven times. 
But second marriages were much more common 
then than now. 



CHAPTER II 

WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY 

David and Richard Cecil were successful men 
of the world, and to them the beginnings of the 
material prosperity of the family are due. But 
though they planted the stock firmly on the road 
to greatness, it was William, Lord Burghley, who 
completed what they had begun, and made the 
name of Cecil famous throughout the world. With 
little to help him but his own great abilities, he 
rose to be Secretary of State at the age of thirty, 
and from the accession of Elizabeth till his death — 
a period of forty years— he presided over the 
affairs of the nation with an authority second 
only to the Queen, guiding the country successfully 
through the dangers and difficulties of a supremely 
critical period, and so increasing her prestige that 
at his death England had finally taken her place 
among the great European powers. 

William Cecil was born on September 13th, 
1520, at Bourne in Lincolnshire, probably at the 
house of his mother's parents. He gave evidence 
of more than ordinary ability in his earliest years, 
" being," we are told,^ " in his infancy so pregnant 
in wit, and so desirous and apt to learn, as in 

1 See the Life, by a gentleman of his household, already referred to 
(Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, p. 4). Other details of his youth and 
character are drawn from the same source. 



i6 THE CECILS 

expectation foretold his great future fortune." 
He was educated at the Grammar School at 
Grantham, and afterwards at Stamford, and in 
May, 1535, at the age of fourteen, he entered as a 
student at St. John's College, Cambridge. 

Here he distinguished himself by his " diHgence 
and towardness," hiring the bell-ringer to call him 
at four o'clock in the morning, and applying him- 
self so closely to his studies that he seriously 
injured his health (" which was thought one of 
the original causes of his gout "). The Master of 
the College, Dr. Medcalf, a man who, though no 
scholar himself, knew how to breed scholars and 
had made St. John's the most famous place of 
education in England, showed special favour to 
young Cecil, and " would often give him money 
to encourage him." And he proved so " toward, 
studious and rarely capable " that he read the 
sophistry lecture at the age of sixteen and after- 
wards read the Greek lecture, " as a gentleman 
for his exercise upon pleasure, without pension, 
before he was nineteen years old; which he per- 
formed so learnedly as was beyond expectation 
of a student of his time or one of his years or birth. 
For at that time it was a rare thing to have any 
perfection in the Greek tongue." 

Among Cecil's acquaintances at Cambridge were 
Matthew Parker, afterwards Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, Nicholas Bacon, father of Francis and 
afterwards Lord Keeper, Roger Ascham and 
John Cheke, who subsequently became Regius 
Professor of Greek and tutor to Edward VL 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 17 

With the latter he was especially intimate, though 
Cheke was a few years his senior and was already 
a Fellow of St. John's College, with a great repu- 
tation as a Greek scholar. His father, Peter 
Cheke, had been esquire-bedell of the University, 
but his widow was left in poor circumstances and 
supported herself and her children by keeping a 
wine-shop in the town. Here it was that Cecil 
met and fell in love with Mary Cheke, the sister of 
his friend. Whether his father found out what 
was going on we cannot tell, but in May, 1541, 
after six years' residence, Cecil left the University 
without taking a degree and entered Gray's Inn. 
It is a reasonable inference that his father, who no 
doubt had more ambitious designs for his son, 
removed him from Cambridge prematurely on 
account of this unbecoming attachment. If so 
his efforts were in vain ; for in August, what is, 
so far as we know, the only romantic episode in 
the life of William Cecil, culminated in his marriage 
with Mary Cheke. We learn incidentally from a 
letter written many years later, that on this 
occasion he incurred his father's severe displeasure.^ 
As to his studies at Gray's Inn, little is known. 
In viev/ of his amazing industry throughout his 
life, it is hardly to be supposed that he was idle. 
Yet it is strange that in after years he is said to 
have specially commended the study of the com- 
mon law above all other learning, saying that " if 
he should begin again, he would follow that 
study " ; and his ignorance of law is confirmed by 

1 Roger Alford to Cecil, April gth, 1553 {Hatfield MSS., I. 435). 
C. C 



i8 THE CECILS 

a letter written to him by Edward Griffin, the 
Queen's Attorney, in 1557, in which he says he is 
sorry Cecil was never of Gray's Inn, " nor can 
skill of no law." Probably he never intended to 
take up the law as a profession, and if he applied 
himself seriously to the subject at all, his studies 
were broken off by his promotion at Court. He 
is said to have laid the foundation at this time of 
his knowledge of genealogy and heraldry, of which 
mention has already been made. In these matters 
he was afterwards recognised as an expert, being 
specially interested in the pedigrees of Royal houses 
and great families in England and abroad — a 
taste he gratified by decorating the walls of 
Theobalds with genealogical trees. Such import- 
ance did he attach to this study, that when his son 
was in Paris, in 1561, he was anxious that he 
should receive instruction from a herald, so as to 
" understand the principal families and their 
alliances in France," ^ 

Whatever his intellectual occupations may have 
been while at Gray's Inn, his " witty mirth and 
merry temper " made him popular among his 
fellows, and he is said to have been very fond 
of practical jokes and other merry jests. An 
example is given by his domestic biographer : — 

" Among the rest I heard him tell this merriment of 
himself. That a mad companion enticed him to play, 
where in short time he lost all his money, bedding, and 
books to his companion ; having never used play before. 
And being among his other company, told how such a one 

1 Burgon, Life of Sir T. Gresham, I. 229. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 19 

had. misled him ; saying he would presently have a device 
to be even with him. And he was as good as his word ; 
with a long ' tronke ' made a hole in the wall, near his 
playfellow's bed's-head, and in a fearful voice, spake thus, 
through the tronke. ' O mortal man, repent ! repent of 
thy horrible time, play, cousenage, and such lewdness, or 
else thou art damned, and canst not be saved ! ' Which 
at midnight, all alone, so amazed him, as drove him into 
a sweat for fear. Most penitent and heavy, the next day, 
in presence of the youths, he told, with trembling, what a 
fearful voice spake to him at midnight, vowing never 
to play again : and calling for Mr. Cecil, asked him for 
forgiveness on his knees ; and restored all his money, 
bedding and books. So two gamesters were both 
reclaimed with this merry device, and never played 
more." 

The same authority tells us how Cecil attracted 
the notice of Henry VIII. Going down to Court 
one day to see his father, he met two priests, 
chaplains to Conn O'Neill, the Irish chieftain. 
With them he fell into a disputation (in Latin), 
" wherein he showed so great learning and wit, as 
he proved the poor priests to have neither ; who 
were so put down, as they had not a word to 
say," but retired discomfited. The King, hearing 
of this encounter, called for Cecil, and " after a 
long talk with him, much delighted with his 
answers, willed his father to find out a suit for 
him. Whereupon he became suitor for a reversion 
of the Custos Brevium of&ce in the common pleas, 
which the King willingly granted." Later writers 
state that the subject of the argument was the 
supremacy of the Pope ; but of this there is no 
evidence. This incident must belong to the year 

c 2 



20 THE CECILS 

1542, when O'Neill made submission to the King 
and was created Earl of Tyrone. 

In May of the same year, a son, Thomas, was 
born to Cecil at Cambridge and less than a year 
later his wife died (February 22nd, 1543). He 
did not long remain a widower, and his father can 
have found no fault with his second choice. In 
December, 1545, he married the eldest daughter 
of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Gidea Hall, Essex, one 
of the leading exponents of the new learning. 
Mildred Cooke, then aged twenty, was one of 
four sisters, all of whom were " brought up in 
learning of Greek and Latin above their sex " ^ 
and were married to men of note. One of them, 
Anne, became the wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon and 
was the mother of Francis Bacon ; while another, 
Elizabeth, married Sir Thomas Hoby, Ambassador 
in France, and afterwards John, Lord Russell. 
Of the fourth, who married Sir Henry Killigrew, 
little is known. The connection must have been 
socially of considerable value to Cecil. Mildred 
herself, " a wise and vertuous gentlewoman," is 
thus commemorated by a contemporary poet : — 

" Cooke is comely, and thereto 
In books sets all her care ; 
In learning with the Roman dames 
Of right she may compare." ^ 

Ascham, in a letter to Sturmius (August, 1550), 
couples her with Lady Jane Grey, as the two most 

1 Camden's Annals. 

2 Richard Edwardes' s Praze of eight ladyes of Queen Elizabeth's Court. 
Quoted by Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia, ed. 1824, p. 51. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 21 

learned ladies in England, saying that she " under- 
stands and speaks Greek like English,^ so that 
it may be doubted whether she is most happy in 
the possession of this surpassing degree of know- 
ledge, or in having for her preceptor and father, 
Sir Anthony Cooke, whose singular erudition 
caused him to be joined with John Cheke in the 
office of tutor to the King ; or finally in having 
become the wife of William Cecil, lately appointed 
Secretary of State : a young man indeed but 
mature in wisdom, and so deeply skilled, both in 
letters and affairs, and endued with such modera- 
tion in the exercise of public offices, that to him 
would be awarded by the consenting voice of 
Englishmen the four-fold praise attributed to 
Pericles by his rival Thucydides : ' To know all 
that is fitting, to be able to apply what he knows, 
to be a lover of his country, and superior to 
money.' " 

On the death of Henry VIII., in 1547, Cecil 
was in a very advantageous position. He was 
connected by marriage with John Cheke and 
Sir Anthony Cooke, the young King's tutors, and 
had already gained the good graces of the Earl of 
Hertford, who now became the Protector Somerset. 
He was thus identified with the rising party at 
Court, and about this time, the office of Ciistos 
rotulorum hrevium, of which he held the reversion, 
fell in, giving him, according to his own estimate, 
an income of about £240 a year. 

* She translated a treatise of St. Chrysostom into English. 



22 THE CECILS 

He was now twenty-seven years of age, and 
must have already shown his abiHties, for Somerset 
in the same year appointed him his " Master of 
Requests." This was an office, probably of a 
secretarial nature, connected with the Court of 
Requests set up by the Protector in Somerset 
House " to hear poor men's petitions and suits." 
Here he had his first experience of such complaints 
and applications, which, throughout the rest of 
his life, he received in greater numbers, perhaps, 
than have ever fallen to the share of any one man, 
before or since. 

He accompanied Somerset in his expedition to 
Scotland, in the capacity of one of the " judges of 
the Marshalsea," i.e., in the courts-martial,^ the 
other judge being William Patten, the chronicler 
of the campaign. At the battle of Pinkie, where 
the Scots were disastrously routed (September, 
1547), he had a narrow escape, being " miracu- 
lously saved by one that, putting forth his arm to 
thrust Mr. Cecil out of the level of the cannon, 
had his arm stricken off." " This was his first and 
only experience of fighting, and indeed he was so 
essentially a man of peaceful and sedentary habits, 
caring nothing for any form of sport or athletic 
exercise, that he must have felt out of place in a 
field of battle. 

He was more at home in Parliament, for which 
he was elected to sit for the borough of Stamford 
in November, 1547. In the following year, Somer- 

1 See Encyclopcsdia Britannica, nth ed., art. " Burghley." 

2 Peck. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 23 

set made him his private secretary, a position, 
however, which he was not to hold for many 
months. Somerset's well-meaning but unprac- 
tical and impolitic measures had gradually roused 
resentment against him in all classes, except the 
peasantry, who had no influence ; and in the 
autumn of 1549 matters came to a crisis. The 
Earl of Warwick, fresh from suppressing the 
peasants' rising in Norfolk, gathered round him 
the malcontents in the Council, and the Protector's 
party quickly dwindled away. On October loth, 
Somerset was arrested, and a few days later he was 
committed to the Tower. Cecil retained his 
liberty for the time, possibly owing to Warwick's 
friendship with his father,^ but in November he 
too was in the Tower, where he remained until the 
end of January. He then received his freedom, 
but was bound under a penalty of a thousand 
marks to appear before the Council when called 
upon. 

Somerset himself was set free soon afterwards, 
and was re-admitted to the Privy Council. In the 
summer the two factions were allied together by 
the marriage of Somerset's daughter. Lady Anne 
Seymour, with Warwick's eldest son. Lord Lisle ; 
but one can hardly believe that anyone expected 
a permanent alliance between men of such entirely 
different aims and ideals. Warwick was, in fact, 
already scheming to get rid of his rival, and in 
October, 155 1, Somerset was again arrested on a 

1 Hume, The Great Lord Burghley, p. 21. See S. P. Dom., Northum- 
berland to Cecil, May 31st, 1552. 



24 THE CECILS 

fabricated charge of treason and felony. His trial 
and condemnation were followed by his execution 
in January, 1552. 

Meanwhile Cecil seems to have lost no time in 
ingratiating himself with Warwick, and on 
September, 5th, 1550, he was appointed one of 
the two Secretaries of State. A year later, 
October nth, 155 1, he was knighted and sworn 
of the Privy Council, his brother-in-law, John 
Cheke, receiving the honour of knighthood at the 
same time. 

Cecil's action at this critical time has been much 
discussed. The facts are clear. The secretary 
and right-hand man of the Protector, the most 
intimate member of his circle, accepted without 
demur, honours and ofhce from the man who had 
supplanted him — a man of whose sinister character 
and ambitions he cannot have been ignorant. 
Moreover, his behaviour to the statesman who had 
befriended and advanced him appears to have been 
callous in the extreme. Somerset, when he first 
became aware of the scheme against him, sent for 
Cecil " to tell him he suspected some ill " ; where- 
upon Cecil is said to have replied " that if he were 
not guilty, he might be of good courage ; if he 
were, he had nothing to say but to lament him."^ 

This incident is said to have occurred on 
October 14th, three days after Cecil had been 
knighted and Warwick had become Duke of 
Northumberland. Two days later Somerset was 

1 King Edward VI.'s Journal. See Ty tier's History of Edward VI. 
and Mary, II. 4. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 25 

in the Tower, and though Cecil took no pubHc 
part in his trial, a document in his handwriting 
exists, containing a list of questions to be put to 
the prisoner, all of a nature to compromise him.^ 

Such conduct is not that of a hero. But Cecil 
was not cast in a heroic mould. He played for 
safety all his life, and was quite incapable of 
sacrificing himself to satisfy the demands of 
gratitude or friendship, especially as no action on 
his part could possibly have benefited his former 
patron. 

In such a matter, as in all others affecting the 
relations between man and man, the standard of 
conduct is regulated by customs and conventions 
which vary from age to age ; and a course of 
action which would meet with severe reprobation 
at the present day was then considered highly 
meritorious. Sir Thomas Morysine, Ambassador 
to the Emperor, no doubt echoed the general 
opinion when he wrote to congratulate Cecil on 
escaping his patron's fate, and added, " For it 
were a way to make an end of amity, if, when 
men fall, their friends should forthwith therefore 
be troubled." ^ That Sir William's friends thought 
him fortunate, rather than reprehensible, is shown 
by a letter from Sir W. Pickering, who wrote from 
Paris (October 27th, 155 1) expressing his pleasure 
to hear " the form of your good fortune to be found 
undefiled with the folly of this unfortunate Duke." ^ 

1 Cotton MSS., Titus B. ii. Quoted by Hume, p. 29. 

2 Cal. S. P. Foreign, November i8th, 1551. 

3 Tytler, II. 67. 



26 THE CECILS 

At the same time, it is impossible to deny that 
Cecil was ruled by the dictates of his own ambition, 
and his cold and calculating nature led him into a 
course of action from which a man of more generous 
disposition would have shrunk. Worldly wisdom 
was his guide, as the Precepts which he addressed 
to his son Sir Robert Cecil sufficiently show. One 
of these is concerned with the attitude to be 
adopted towards the great, and may be quoted 
here. " Be sure to keep some great man thy 
friend," he says, " but trouble him not for trifles, 
compliment him often with many and small gifts, 
and if thou hast cause to bestow any great gratuity, 
let it be something which may be daily in sight, 
otherwise, in this ambitious age, thou shalt remain 
like a hop without a pole, live in obscurity, and be 
made a football for every insulting companion to 
spurn at." 

The hand of Cecil is to be seen in all the measures 
of this reign. While ministers were plotting and 
scheming, the Secretary was indefatigable in 
business, giving his whole time and attention to 
the affairs of state. " Of all men of genius," 
it has been said, " he was the most of a drudge ; 
of all men of business, the most of a genius." ^ 

Financial reform, the liquidation of the King's 
debt, and the improvement of commerce, were all 
in turn the objects of his care. He also took an 
active part in the measures for the settlement of 
the Church, and Cranmer, before submitting the 
new " Forty-two Articles " to Parliament and 

1 Guthrie, History of England, III. 69. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 27 

Convocation, referred them absolutely to Cecil and 
Cheke, " the two great patrons of the Reformation 
at Court." ' 

He must have been admitted into the intimate 
confidence of the young King, as is shown by the 
story that the Princess Mary, on receipt of a letter 
from her brother enjoining her conformity, 
remarked " Ah ! good Master Cecil took much 
pains here." 

On April 12th, 1553, he was appointed Chan- 
cellor of the Order of the Garter, and notes in his 
Diary, " Paid the embroiderers for xxxvj schut- 
chyns for my servants' coats at ij s. each, iii 1. 
xii s," ^ an entry which shows us that already he 
kept a large establishment. 

In the spring of this year the state of the King's 
health hastened on Northumberland's mad plan 
for securing the succession to his own family. On 
May 2ist he married his son. Lord Guilford Dudley, 
to the Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of 
Suffolk and grand-daughter of Henry VIII. 's 
youngest sister Mary, Queen-Dowager of France. 
He then persuaded the King to set aside his father's 
will, under which the succession was to descend 
to Mary and Elizabeth, and to draw up a new deed 
of settlement, devising the Crown to Lady Jane 
Grey. These manoeuvres placed Cecil in a difficult 
and dangerous position and he did all he could to 
avoid personal responsibility in the matter. 

1 Strype. 

2 Burghley invariably used Roman numerals for his accounts and 
reckonings. 



28 THE CECILS 

His health was never very good and he had had 
a serious illness at Wimbledon two years before. 
He was now again kept to his house by a grave 
indisposition, which attacked him at so opportune 
a moment that it is generally supposed to have had 
a diplomatic origin. There is no doubt, however, 
that he was over- worked, and his friend Dr. Wotton 
wrote from Paris to urge him to moderate his 
labours, " your complexion being not strong 
enough to continue as you began." It was on 
this occasion that Lord Audley sent him the 
following simple recipes.^ 

A good medicine for weakness or consumption. 

" Take a sow-pig of nine days old, and flea him and 
quarter him, and put him in a stillatory with a handful of 
spearmint, a handful of red fennel, a handful of liverwort, 
and half a handful of red nepe [turnip], a handful of 
celery, nine dates clean picked and pared, a handful of 
great raisins, and pick out the stones, and a quarter of an 
ounce of mace and two sticks of good cinnamon bruised in 
a mortar : and distil it together, with a fair fire ; and put 
it in a glass, and set it in the sun nine days ; and drink 
a spoonful of it at once when you list." 

A compost. 
" Item. Take a porpin, otherwise called an EngHsh 
hedgehog, and quarter him in pieces, and put the said 
beast in a still with these ingredients : item, a quart of 
red wine, a pint of rose-water, a quart of sugar, cinnamon 
and great raisins, one date, twelve nepe." 

Whether these remedies v/ere efficacious we do not 
learn . But by June 14th Sir William was well enough 

1 Tytler, II. 169, 170. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 29 

to be at Court, and on that day the "devise" 
of the Crown was signed by all the members 
of the Privy Council, with the exception of 
Sir John Hales. In this matter again Cecil took 
the safe course. That he protested against the 
whole proceeding is certain. His servant Roger 
Alford states that from the first moment it was 
in contemplation he expressed his aversion to it 
and declared that " whatever became of it he 
would never partake of that devise." He must 
have realised that such a document, extorted from 
a minor on his deathbed, could not override the 
will of Henry VIII. , which had received parlia- 
mentary sanction ; and he no doubt foresaw that 
Northumberland's ambition would overreach itself 
and involve him and his abettors in ruin. 

Nevertheless the violence of Northumberland and 
the command of the King impelled him to afhx his 
signature, though he afterwards protested that he 
signed merely as a witness — a plea that avails 
him nothing in view of the fact that he also 
signed the promise by which the Council bound 
themselves " by our oaths and honour to observe, 
fully perform and keep all and every article " of 
the devise. 

At any rate, he was so much alive to his danger 
that he went about armed, concealed his valuables, 
and made such a disposition of his property as to 
secure it to his son in the event of his being 
imprisoned or forced to leave the kingdom. After 
the accession of Mary, he drew up a paper, in 
which he exculpates himself by an account of his 



30 THE CECILS 

actions under twenty-one heads. This document 
serves to show how he tried to throw the responsi- 
bihty onto others, and while ostensibly acting on 
behalf of Northumberland, took steps to make 
himself as safe as possible, whatever might 
happen. It is interesting to read that, " when the 
conspiracy was first opened to me, I did fully set 
me to flee the realm, and was dissuaded by 
Mr. Cheke, who willed me for my satisfaction to 
read a dialogue of Plato, where Socrates, being in 
prison, was offered to escape and flee, and yet he 
would not. I read the dialogue, whose reasons 
did indeed stay me." ^ 

The King died on July 6th, and Cecil notes in 
his Diary " Libertatem adeptus sum morte regis et 
ex misero aulico f actus liber et mei juris." He was 
now free from the domination of Northumberland, 
whose policy and methods he thoroughly disliked, 
and whose ruin was soon seen to be certain. No 
sooner had the Duke set out to seize the person 
of Mary than Cecil began to intrigue actively 
against him. He sent his sister-in-law, Lady 
Bacon, to meet the Queen, and heard from her 
that " the Queen thought well of her brother Cecil 
and said he was a very honest man." He himself 
met Mary at Newhall in Essex, and was graciously 
received. A general pardon was granted him, but 
he was not re-instated in his office of Secretary, 
though he is said to have been offered the post if 
he would change his religion, and to have refused. 

1 Lansdowne MSS., 102, f. 2. The document is printed in full in 
Tytler, II. 192 — 195, and in Hume. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 31 

The story is improbable, for he, in common with 
many others — the Princess Ehzabeth among them 
— conformed to the Cathohc ritual during this 
reign, going to confession, attending mass, and 
" demeaning himself as a good Catholic," as 
enjoined by the Government. 

At this time he probably held no strong personal 
views on the subject of religion, though he was a 
Protestant by inclination. But he believed that 
the Sovereign was the supreme head of the Church, 
and that on matters of faith her word was law ; 
and he maintained that " that state could never be 
in safety where there was a toleration of two 
religions.^ For there is no enmity so great as that 
for religion ; and therefore they that differ in the 
service of their God can never agree in the service 
of their country." Throughout his life he insisted 
upon obedience to the law, and the maintenance 
of uniformity in worship. No doubt he felt there- 
fore that he would best serve the country and at 
the same time benefit himself by due submission ; 
and thus while his brother-in-law Sir John Cheke, 
his father-in-law Sir Anthony Cooke, his friend the 
Duchess of Suffolk, and many others suffered exile 
for their faith, Cecil, worldly-wise as usual, stayed 
at home and prospered. 

Of his public life during Mary's reign we have 
little record. He was one of the three commis- 
sioners sent to Brussels in November, 1554, to 

1 So, 240 years later, George III. wrote to Pitt, " No country can be 
governed where there is more than one established religion " (Rose, 
Pitt and the Great War, p. 359). 



32 THE CECILS 

meet Cardinal Pole, the Papal Legate, who was on 
his way to London to grant absolution to the 
Kingdom ; and in the following year he attended 
the Cardinal to Calais on his abortive embassy to 
negotiate peace between France and the Emperor. 
He was chosen to represent the county of Lincoln 
in the Parliament of 1555, and was in some 
danger owing to his outspoken opposition to the 
Government on the question of confiscating the 
estates of Protestant exiles. " I spoke my mind 
freely," he says in his Diary, "whereby I incurred 
displeasure ; but it is better to serve God than 
man." 

Probably, however, he kept himself as much as 
possible in the background during this reign, 
though Lloyd says that " when he was out of 
place he was not out of service in Queen Mary's 
days ; his abilities being as necessary in those 
times as his inclination ; and that Queen's Council 
being as ready to advance him at last, as they were 
to use him all her reign." ^ 

Meanwhile he maintained communication with 
the Princess Elizabeth, who had known and 
trusted him for several years. So early as Sep- 
tember, 1549, h^i" " cofferer," Thomas Parry, 
writes to him in a way which shows that Elizabeth 
thought him the person in highest authority about 
the Protector, and believed in his integrity.^ In 
April, 1553, she asked for his advice in connection 
with the " lewd demeanour " of one Mr. Keye, the 

1 State Worthies, ed. 1766, I. 358. 

2 Tytler, I. 201. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 33 

paymaster of the House of Ewelme, of which 
institution she was foundress, and proposed to 
appoint him, with others, as a commission to 
examine into the matter, being " determined to 
remove the violence and oppression " and to have 
the poor thoroughly considered. At the same time 
she sent him the patent of the stewardship of the 
manor of Colly- Weston, signed and sealed.^ Yet 
these confidential relations were conducted with 
so much caution and discretion on Cecil's part that, 
as Dr. Jessopp has observed, " all the researches 
of three centuries have failed to discover, in all the 
enormous mass of documents that have come to 
light and bearing upon this period, a single letter 
or instrument which indicates that any intrigues 
were going on between Elizabeth and Cecil during 
the later years of Mary's reign." ^ 

During this period of his life he was living at 
Wimbledon, though we know nothing of the house 
he lived in. He was already a landowner on a 
large scale. In November, 155 1 — between the 
arrest of Somerset and his trial — he received an 
enormous grant of estates in Lincolnshire and 
Rutland ; and his landed property was consider- 
ably increased on the death of his father in March, 
1553- Soon afterwards he began the first enlarge- 
ment of Burghley House, for though that estate 
and mansion had been left to his mother, and 
during her life he always regarded it as hers, he 
spent immense sums on it. 

1 Cal. of Hatfield MSS., I. 434. 

2 William Cecil, Lord Burghley, p. 9. 

C. D 



34 THE CECILS 

His building operations were extensive, and 
later in life he incurred a good deal of censure for 
his extravagance. In a letter of great interest, 
addressed to William Herlle (August 14th, 1585), 
he makes light of these accusations. " My house 
of Burghley," he says, "is of my mother's inherit- 
ance who liveth and is the owner thereof ; and I 
but a farmer. And for the building there, I have 
set my walls but upon the old foundation. Indeed, 
I have made the rough stone walls to be of square ; 
and yet one side remaineth as my father left it 
me. I trust my son shall be able to maintain it, 
considering there are in that shire a dozen larger, 
of men under my degree." ^ 

In all of this there is great exaggeration. There 
can never have been a dozen houses in Northamp- 
tonshire larger than Burghley. As a matter of 
fact, Holdenby, the palace of Sir Christopher 
Hatton, was its only real rival." And though 
Cecil may have used the old foundations so far as 
they went, his father's house must have been a 
mere cottage compared with the completed man- 
sion. According to Mr. Gotch, only part of one 
wing — the east — can be regarded as representing 
the original house ; and it was this wing which 
was remodelled and enlarged between 1553 and 
1564. The great hall and the kitchen, therefore, 
belong to this period, as well as the stone-vaulted 
staircase in the north front, a feature unique in 

' S. p. Dom., CLXXXI. 42. See Gentleman's Magazine, February, 
1836, p. 49. 

2 See Mr. Gotch's article on The Homes of the Cecils in Jack's 
Historical Monograph (1904). 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 35 

England, though not uncommon in France. As 
it happens, these are almost the only parts of the 
house which remain to the present day practically 
unaltered. After 1564 there was an interval of 
some ten years before building again began and the 
house was completed. 



D ^ 



CHAPTER III 

WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY {cOuUnued) 

Mary died on November 17th, 1558, and when 
the Lords of the Council arrived at Hatfield to 
announce Elizabeth's accession, they found that 
Cecil had forestalled them. He had already 
drawn up a memorandum of all the immediate 
measures to be adopted for the security of the 
young Queen and for carrying on the business of 
the country. Moreover Elizabeth and he together 
had decided upon the new ministers, Cecil himself 
being appointed Secretary of State. It was on 
this occasion that the Queen addressed to him the 
often-quoted words : — 

" I give you this charge, that you shall be of my Privy 
Council, and content yourself to take pains for me and my 
realm. This judgment I have of you, that you will not 
be corrupted with any manner of gift ; and that you will 
be faithful to the State ; and that, without respect of my 
private will, you will give me that counsel that you think 
best ; and if you shall know anything necessary to be 
declared to me of secrecy, you shall show it to myself 
only ; and assure yourself I will not fail to keep 
taciturnity therein. And therefore herewith I charge 
you." 1 

He justified her confidence by forty years of 
loyal and honourable service. 

1 Harington, Nug(B Antiques, ed. 1679, II. 311. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 37 

One of the first things that claimed his attention 
was the state of the Church, and the rehgious 
settlement of 1559 was largely due to his modera- 
tion and statesmanship. He had to steer his 
course between the Romanists on the one hand and 
the Puritans on the other, and the best proof of 
the wisdom of his policy lies in the fact that each 
party complained that he favoured the other. 
His difficulties were increased by the fact that 
Elizabeth was, at least at the beginning of her 
reign, personally attracted to many of the rites 
of the Roman Church, and was not easily 
persuaded to go so far in the direction of reform 
as Cecil thought necessary. The attitude of the 
Bishops, however, made a settlement imperatively 
necessary, and in April, 1559, the Act of Supremacy 
which " restored to the Crown the ancient juris- 
diction over the State Ecclesiastical " received the 
Royal assent, after considerable opposition in the 
House of Lords. The Act of Uniformity, which 
enforced the use of the Revised Prayer Book, was 
passed at the same time, and in the course of the 
next two years, according to Strype, " the Church 
of England was reduced to the same good state 
wherein it was at the latter years of King Edward." 

Even more credit is due to Cecil for his share in 
bringing about an enduring peace with Scotland. 
On the death of Henry I. of France in June, 1559, 
Mary Stuart became Queen Consort, and her 
pretensions to the throne of England could no 
longer be ignored. Her mother, Mary of Guise, 
was Regent in Scotland, and there was grave fear 



38 THE CECILS 

lest that country should pass under French 
domination. In order to avert this danger, Cecil 
persuaded Elizabeth to send help to the Scottish 
Protestants, who were hard pressed by the 
Catholic party, supported by French troops. The 
result was that the French army, which was 
besieged in the town of Leith, was compelled to 
surrender, and Sir William was sent with Dr. 
Wotton as commissioners to arrange terms of 
peace. The Treaty of Edinburgh which ensued 
(July, 1560) was a triumph for Cecil's diplomacy 
and statesmanship, and finally put an end to the 
danger of French supremacy in Scotland. 

On his return to London Cecil found himself 
thrown into the background by Lord Robert 
Dudley, who had become dominant at Court 
during his absence ; and though he regained his 
influence soon after, owing to the odium incurred 
by Dudley after the death of Amy Robsart, his 
difficulties from this time forward until the death 
of his rival, in 1588, were enormously increased by 
the unprincipled opposition of Dudley and his 
faction. 

In 1561 he was appointed Master of the Court of 
Wards, an important and lucrative post involving 
a great amount of work, as may be seen by the 
innumerable letters connected with it which are 
preserved among the Hatfield MSS. It was a 
position which provided endless opportunities for 
irregular emoluments and for tyrannical exactions. 
Cecil reformed the procedure and executed his 
office, says Camden, " providently for the benefit 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 39 

of his Prince and the wards, for his own profit 
moderately, and for the benefit of his followers 
bountifully, yet without offence ; and in all 
things with great commendations for his inte- 
grity."^ His impartiality and incorruptibility 
were recognised on all sides. "In a case of 
hearing," says his domestic biographer, " I had 
rather of the two been his enemy. For if he leaned 
any way, as willingly he never would, it was rather 
to the foe; lest he might be taxed of partiality." 
The same authority recurs to this characteristic 
several times, being evidently much struck by the 
fact that, as the Duchess of Suffolk put it in one of 
her sprightly letters to Cecil, he would never " break 
justice's head for friendship." 

The onerous duties of this ofQce, and the still 
more responsible labours which fell to his lot as 
Secretary, would have more than occupied most 
men. But at this time Cecil was also a member 
of Parliament for the county of Lincoln and 
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The 
latter post was by no means a sinecure, but gave 
him so much trouble that in 1562 he wished to 
resign, alleging his want of leisure, his unfitness for 
the position, and above all the laxity and want of 
uniformity in the religious observances in the 
University. He was, however, persuaded to with- 
draw his resignation, and two years later it was his 
duty to superintend all the preparations for the 
Queen's visit to Cambridge. He was then granted 
the degree of M.A., and the same honour was 

1 Annals, p. 495. 



40 THE CECILS 

awarded to him by the University of Oxford on 
the occasion of the Queen's visit in 1566. 

Moreover, his private affairs must have taken 
up much of his time. Besides the house at 
Burghley, where building was still in progress, he 
had acquired Cecil House in the Strand, and " far 
more beautifully increased it." This house, which 
was also known as Burghley House and Exeter 
House, was on the north side of the Strand, and 
occupied a large site westward of what is now 
Wellington Street.^ It was not finished in July, 
1561, when Cecil entertained the Queen to supper 
there. In the letter to Herlle already quoted 
(see p. 34) he says of it, " For mxy house in West- 
minster, I think it so old as it should not stir any ; 
many having of later times built larger by far, 
both in city and country. And yet the building 
thereof cost me the sale of lands worth £100 by 
year, in Staffordshire, that I had of good King 
Edward." 

A far larger undertaking was the great house at 
Theobalds, in Hertfordshire.- Cecil bought the 
estate in 1563, and soon afterwards started 
building and planting. As to this house, he says 
that it v/as " begun by me with a mean measure, 
but increased by occasions of her Majesty's often 
coming ; whom to please I never would omit to 

^ It must not be confused with another Exeter House, or another 
Cecil House, which afterwards belonged to Sir Robert Cecil. See 
Gotch, Homes of the Cecils, as before. 

2 For an account of Theobalds see Gotch, and also the Gentleman' s 
Magazine, February, 1836, which contains an elaborate article bj' 
J. G. Nichols. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 41 

strain myself to more charges than building is. 
And yet not without some special direction of her 
Majesty. Upon fault found with the small 
measure of her chamber (which was in good 
measure for me), I was forced to enlarge a room 
for a larger chamber : which need not be envied 
of any for riches in it, more than the show of old 
oaks and such trees, with painted leaves and 
fruit." His domestic biographer also tells us of 
Theobalds that " at the first he meant it but for 
a little pile, as I have heard him say, but after he 
came to entertain the Queen so often there, he 
was enforced to enlarge it, rather for the Queen 
and her grand train, and to set poor on work, than 
for pomp and glory." 

The first two courts — completing, probably, the 
original plan of the house — were completed about 
1570, and Cecil entertained Elizabeth there in 
September, 1571. The final enlargement was 
made between 1584 and 1588. 

In every detail of these operations, both in 
the building of the house and the laying out of 
the grounds, Cecil was keenly and personally 
interested. He frequently asked his corre- 
spondents abroad to send him new books on 
architecture and gardening, as well as " things 
meet for his garden." ^ " He greatly delighted in 
making gardens, fountains and walks," says his 

^ Thus, on one occasion, Windebank, Thomas Cecil's tutor, sent him, 
at his request, from Paris, " a lemon-tree in a tub, costing 15 crowns, 
and 2 myrtle trees in pots, costing a crown each, with ample and curious 
directions for the culture of these plants " {Cal. S. P. Dom., March 25th 
and April 8th, 1562). 



42 THE CECILS 

biographer, " which at Theobalds were perfected 
most costly, beautifully and pleasantly ; where 
one might walk two miles in the walks before he 
came to their ends." The gardens are also 
described . by Hentzner, who visited them in 
1598/ They were " encompassed with water, 
large enough for one to have the pleasure of going 
in a boat and rowing among the shrubs," and 
there were labyrinths, a fountain with a marble 
basin, "built semi-circularly," with statues of 
the twelve Roman Emperors in white marble. 
Hentzner also mentions a gallery, or cloister, on 
the south side of the house, painted with the 
Kings and Queens of England and, as we learn 
from another account, with " the pedigree of 
Lord Burghley and divers others ancient families " 
as well as castles and battles.^ 

The house itself must have been a noble pile, 
with its three main courts, its great halls and 
galleries, its richly ornamented ceilings and 
chimney-pieces, and its beautiful tapestries. One 
ceiling is described by a visitor^ as containing 
" the signs of the zodiac with the stars proper to 
each," across which the sun was, by some ingenious 
mechanism, made to pursue its course. " The 
walls were decorated with trees, with bark so 
artfully arranged that it was impossible to dis- 

1 A translation of his Journey to England was issued by Horace 
Walpole at the Strawberry Hill Press, 1758. See Gentleman's Magazine, 
February, 1836, p. 150; Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, II. 88. 

"^ Parliamentary Survey taken in 1650. Quoted in Lysons' Environs 
of London, IV. 33, sqq. ; and in the above-named authorities. 

* The Duke of Wiirtemberg's secretary (1592). Quoted by Mr. 
Gotch. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 43 

tinguish between the artificial and the natural ; 
the birds themselves were deceived, and on the 
windows being opened, perched themselves on 
the trees and began to sing." Cecil delighted in 
such conceits, and it is sad to think that of all 
these glories no trace remains. No authentic 
engraving even of the house exists, though some 
idea of its size and magnificence may be obtained 
from the plans made by John Thorpe in 161 1, and 
from the Parliamentary Survey of 1610.^ 

For many years after Cecil's marriage with 
Mildred Cooke they had no children. Then came 
a daughter, Francisca, who did not long survive 
her birth, and then, in 1556, another daughter, 
Ann. On this occasion Sir Anthony Cooke writes 
quaintly from abroad that " he is glad to hear his 
daughter is well-delivered and although a son 
might have been more welcome, yet the bringing 
forth fruit twice in so few years and in this time 
of her age [she was only just thirty], gives good 
hope, though she were not happy at the begin- 
ning." ^ Two boys were born, both named 
WilHam, in 1559 and 1561, but both died in 
infancy. Then came Robert (1563), who suc- 
ceeded his father as Secretary of State, and finally 
a daughter, Elizabeth, to whom the Queen stood 
sponsor (1564). 

His eldest son, Thomas, the only child of his 
first marriage, was a cause of great anxiety to 
him. He had never been a favourite with his 

^ The later history of the house is briefly related in Chapter X. 
- June loth, 1557 {Hatfield MSS., I. 511). 



44 THE CECILS 

father, and in 1561 he was sent to France with his 
tutor to improve his mind. Of his subsequent 
escapades some account will be given later, and 
also of his marriage and subsequent career. 

Meanwhile Mary Stuart, left a widow at the 
age of eighteen through the death of Francis II., 
had returned to Scotland in August, 1561, and 
was for many years to be a thorn in the sides of 
Elizabeth and Cecil. Herself the legitimate heir 
to the English throne, she was the natural head 
of the Catholic reaction and the centre of Catholic 
intrigue. Her marriage with Darnley in 1565, 
though apparently approved at first by Elizabeth, 
raised the hopes of the Catholics throughout 
Europe still further ; and the birth of her son 
James in the following year, may well have 
appeared as an assurance of ultimate victory. 
From this catastrophe the country was saved by 
the crimes and tragedies of the next few months. 
The murder of Darnley and the marriage with 
Bothwell alienated all Mary's friends, and her 
capture and imprisonment on Loch Leven were 
followed by her abdication in July, 1567. But 
the troubles of the English government with 
regard to Mary were only just beginning. With 
her escape from Loch Leven and flight into 
England they became acute. All the forces of 
discontent rallied round her on her arrival in 
England, and from this time onward Cecil, in 
whom the Catholics at home and abroad had long 
recognised the main obstacle to the realisation 
of their hopes and of Mary's claims, was the object 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 45 

of innumerable plots and was in constant danger 
of his life — a fact which must be remembered in 
judging his actions. 

His chief opponents were the party of Norfolk, 
who was scheming to marry Mary and to this end 
seeking the aid of Spain ; and the northern lords, 
who hated the " upstart " whose policy aimed at 
creating a national monarchy, with a consequent 
weakening of their authority and loss of their 
feudal privileges. He had also exasperated the 
Spaniards by his audacious seizure of a cargo of 
treasure on board Spanish ships which had taken 
refuge in English ports on their way to the Low 
Countries — an act of violence to which, as he 
anticipated, they were not in a position to retaliate 
by war. Henceforward the Spanish Ambassador 
intrigued incessantly against him, but as Cecil's 
spies informed him of all that took place, he was 
able to counteract his machinations. 

One of the most serious plots for his destruction 
was conceived in 1569, and in this, Dudley, now 
Earl of Leicester, Norfolk, and the chief Catholic 
lords were implicated. Sir Nicholas Throck- 
morton, a follower of Leicester, advised that Cecil 
should first be consigned to the Tower. "If he 
were once shut up," he said, " men would open 
their mouths to speak freely against him." The 
plot failed, it is said, owing to Leicester himself 
giving some hint of it to the Queen, who loyally 
supported her minister throughout this critical 
time. It is characteristic of Cecil that the dis- 
covery of this plot made no difference in his 



46 THE CECILS 

attitude to his colleagues, with whom he still 
continued to work loyally. " I am in quietness of 
mind," he writes to a friend, " as feeling the 
nearness and readiness of God's favour to assist 
me with His grace, to have a disposition to serve 
Him before the world : and therein have I lately 
proved His mere goodness to preserve me from 
some clouds or mists, in the midst whereof I 
trust mine honest actions are proved to have been 
lightsome and clear. And to make this rule more 
proper, I find the Queen's Majesty, my gracious 
lady, without change of her old good meaning 
towards me, and so I trust by God's goodness to 
observe a continuance." He adds that " all my 
lords " professed to bear him as much goodwill as 
ever. This is one of the most remarkable testi- 
monies to Cecil's character, that, however much 
his opponents may have fought against him in 
pubUc, they all seem to have recognised his 
intrinsic goodness and honesty of purpose. The 
Duke of Norfolk, shortly before his execution, 
wrote to the Queen, asking that Burghley might 
act as a guardian to his " poor orphans," and 
again two days later (January 23rd, 1572) 
expressed his " comfort at hearing of the Queen's 
intended goodness towards his poor unfortunate 
brats and that she has christened them with such 
an adopted father as Lord Burghley." ^ Another 
of the conspirators. Lord Pembroke, made Cecil 
one of his executors, and even Mary herself, 
though she always looked on him as her chief 

1 Hatfield MSS., II. 5. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 47 

enemy, acknowledged his wisdom, and " wished it 
might be her luck to get the friendship of so wise 
a man."^ 

Foiled in this attempt to get Cecil out of the 
way, the Catholic lords, encouraged by the 
Spanish Ambassador, and hoping for aid from 
France, continued their preparations for the 
Northern rebellion, which broke out in November 
of the same year. It was promptly crushed and 
was followed by the excommunication of Elizabeth 
by the Pope in 1570. By this Bull Enghshmen 
were absolved from their oaths of allegiance and 
were forced to choose between the Queen and the 
Pope. They could no longer pretend to reconcile 
loyalty to Elizabeth with intrigues in favour of 
Mary, The Catholics did not, however, on this 
account cease from their designs. 

The Bull of Excommunication was posted on 
the Bishop of London's door by John Felton, who 
was subjected to torture and executed for high 
treason. There is no doubt that Cecil authorised 
the use of torture in this instance,'- and for this he 
has been justly censured.^ Torture had never been 
recognised as legal by the common law of England, 
and had only been employed by Royal Warrant. 
Its use had not been infrequent under Henry VIIL, 
and several cases occurred in the two following 
reigns. But it reached its culmination in the 
latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, when, says 

1 Hatfield MSS., I. 400 

2 Ibid., I. 473. 

^ See Jessopp, as before, p. 21. 



48 THE CECILS 

Hallam, " the rack in the Tower seldom stood 
idle." ^ For this Cecil must be held mainly 
responsible. In excuse it can only be alleged, 
first that he never employed torture for its own 
sake, or unless he believed that he could obtain 
necessary information by so doing : and secondly, 
that not only he personally, but what was of far 
more importance, the Queen and the country were 
in constant and dire peril from the diabolical 
schemes of their unscrupulous enemies. Greatly 
as we must regret that this stain should rest on his 
character, we may be quite certain that he acted 
as he did only under the conviction that the 
interests of the country required it. 

He was anything but a cruel man. Indeed at 
this very time he treated the leaders of the Catholic 
party with a magnanimity which amounted to 
weakness. In spite of the participation of the 
Duke of Norfolk " in the plots of the previous year, 
and of his proposed marriage with Mary, with 
whom he was still in constant correspondence, he 
was released from the Tower in August. His 
letters show that he owed his liberty to Cecil, who 
even went so far as to offer him his sister-in-law. 
Lady Hoby, in marriage. Possibly he may have 
thought it advisable to conciliate his opponents, for 
political reasons.^ In June the appearance of a 
Spanish fleet in the Channel, of which the osten- 

1 See art. " Torture," in Encyclopcsdia Britannica, nth ed., XXVII. 7. 

2 Norfolk had been a Protestant, but at this time he professed himself 
a Catholic ; on the scafiold he said he had always been a Protestant 
(Pollard, History of England, 1547— 1603, p. 298). 

^ He had several interviews with Mary herself at Chatsworth, 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 49 

sible purpose was to convey Anne of Austria from 
Flanders to Spain, produced a panic in London ; 
and one day in July the Queen was in such a state 
of alarm and excitement that Cecil, on retiring to 
his own apartment, cried to his wife in deep 
distress, " O wife ! If God do not help us, we shall 
be lost and undone. Get together all the jewels 
and money you can, that you may follow me when 
the time comes, for surely trouble is in store for 
us." ^ Spain, however, was not ready to fight and 
the danger passed away. 

Next year Cecil's misplaced leniency towards 
Norfolk was repaid by his participation in the 
Ridolfi plot. This villainous conspiracy involved 
the conquest of England by Spain, the assassina- 
tion of Elizabeth and her great ministers, and the 
elevation of Mary to the throne with Norfolk as 
her consort. Cecil soon got wind of the scheme, 
and with infinite patience and skill unravelled it 
until he had sufficient evidence on which to work. 
He then struck hard. The Duke of Norfolk was 
sent to the Tower, other conspirators arrested, 
and the Spanish Ambassador, Guerau de Spes, to 
his unspeakable indignation and astonishment, 
ignominiously expelled. His opinion of Cecil, as 
expressed in the report of his embassy, is worth 
quoting : — 

" The principal person in the Council is William Cecil, 
now Lord Burghley, a Knight of the Garter. He is a 
man of mean sort, but very astute, false, lying and full of 

^ Spanish State Papers. Quoted by Hume, p. 248. The authority 
is the Spanish agent, de Guaras. 

C. E 



50 THE CECILS 

artifice. He is a great heretic and such a clownish 
EngHshman as to beHeve that all the Christian princes 
joined together are not able to injure the sovereign of his 
country, and he therefore treats their ministers with great 
arrogance. This man manages the bulk of the business, 
and by means of his vigilance and craftiness, together 
with his utter unscrupulousness of word and deed, thinks 
to outwit the ministers of other princes, which to some 
extent he has hitherto succeeded in doing." ^ 

As the main plot failed, so did the attempt to 
procure the assassination of Burghley himself. 
The confession of Edmund Mather, one of the 
conspirators, vi^ho stated that he was instigated 
by the Spanish Ambassador, throws light on the 
methods adopted. 

" Of late," he writes, " I have upon discontent entered 
into conspiracy with some others to slay your lordship. 
And the time appointed, a man with a perfect hand 
attended you three several times in your garden to have 
slain your lordship." 

That failing, they now intended to slay him 

" with a shot upon the terrace, or else in coming late 
from the Court with a pistolet. And being touched with 
some remorse of so bloody a deed, in discharge of my 
conscience and before God, I warn your lordship of these 
evil and desperate meanings." 

He adds, naively, " For the thanks I deserve, I 
shall, I doubt not, but receive them hereafter at 
your hands at more convenient time, when these 
storms are past." ^ 

^ Quoted by Hume, p. 264. 

2 Hatfield MSS., II., i, 2. January 4th, 1572. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 51 

The Duke of Norfolk, tried by a jury of peers, 
was condemned to death in January, 1572, and in 
spite of the reluctance of the Queen, who respited 
him several times, he was executed in June. 
With him the last surviving dukedom in England 
became extinct. 

Meanwhile, early in 157 1, Sir WilUam Cecil had 
been raised to the peerage under the title of 
Baron of Burghley.^^ The Queen, as Fuller says, 
" honoured her honours by conferring them 
sparingly," and this is the only instance during 
her reign of the ennobling of a man who was not 
an aristocrat by birth. The elevation was not of 
his own seeking, and he does not seem to have 
taken much pride in it. In a letter to Nicholas 
White, a member of the Privy Council in Ireland, 
he writes, " my style is Lord of Burghley, if you 
mean to know it, for your writing, and if you list 
to write truly, the poorest lord in England : " 
and in letters to Walsingham at about the same 
time he says, " My style of my poor degree is 
Lord of Burleigh," and again, " Your assured 
loving friend William Cecil : I forgot my new 
word, William Burleigh." But even his enemies 
were agreed that the honour was well deserved, and 
the Bishop of Ross, Mary's confidential minister, 
echoed the general opinion when he wrote, " Your 
virtue, wisdom and experience has merited that 
and much more ; and happy is that commonwealth 
where the magistrates are so selected : et quum aut 

^ Also written " Burleigh " ; but " Burghley " is the spelling 
officially adopted. 

E 2 



52 THE CECILS 

sapientes gubernanf, aut gubernantes philoso- 
phantur." 

In the following year he received still further 
marks of the Royal favour. Not only was he made 
a Knight of the Garter, but on the death of the 
Marquis of Winchester, he succeeded to his post 
as Lord High Treasurer, an office which he 
retained for the remaining twenty-six years of 
his life. 

If Burghley was as poor as he pretended, his 
poverty must have been owing to the enormous 
expenditure on his houses and estates. The two 
principal courts of Theobalds were only lately 
completed, and from this time onward the Queen 
visited him there almost every year, staying 
generally three or four days, but sometimes as 
long as a fortnight. On these occasions the 
entertainment was on a lavish scale, and the cost 
was very great. We are told that " his lordship's 
extraordinary charge in entertainment of the 
Queen was greater to him than to any of her 
subjects, for he entertained her at his house 
twelve several times, which cost him two or three 
thousand pounds each time. But his love for 
his sovereign and joy to entertain her and her 
train was so great, as he thought no trouble, care, 
nor cost too much and all too little." ^ 

The same authority tells us that he kept two 
principal houses, one at London, and one at 
Theobalds, " though he was at charge both at 
Burghley and at Court." He must have spent 

1 Peck, as before. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 53 

most of his time in London, but even when he was 
not at Theobalds he kept a staff of about thirty 
servants there permanently, at a weekly charge 
of twelve pounds. " He also relieved there daily 
20 or 30 poor people at the gate, and besides gave 
weekly in money, by Mr. Neale, his lordship's 
chaplin, vicar of Cheshunt, twenty shillings to the 
poor there. The weekly charge in setting poor 
on work as weeders, labourers, etc. came to ten 
pounds. And so his weekly charge at Theobalds 
(his household being at London) was twenty-two 
pounds." This charge was increased to " fourscore 
pounds in a week " when he was at Theobalds, in 
addition to the cost of his stable, which was 
" yearly a thousand marks at the least." At the 
same time, he kept ordinarily in his household in 
London fourscore persons, at a charge of thirty 
pounds a week, which increased ten or twelve 
pounds a week when he was in London. 

At Burghley, building operations had been 
suspended for some years, though no doubt con- 
stant improvements in the gardens and estate 
were being made. 

As before said, the house belonged to the Lord 
Treasurer's mother, but she does not seem to have 
taken up her abode there permanently till 1573. 
On May 26th of that year, Peter Kemp, the 
steward, writes that, " within ten days my mistress, 
your mother, doth mean to go to Burghley for 
altogether. I have almost finished her chamber 
to her contentation. She giveth you hearty 
thanks for your courtesy shewed her in your 



54 THE CECILS 

letter. She did weep for joy when I read it to 
her."^ 

Soon after this, building must have begun again, 
as in September, 1575, Kemp writes asking for 
" the upright of the face ^ of the house his 
lordship intends building, as the workmen are 
almost at a standstill for want of it." The addi- 
tions now begun were to include the quadrangle 
and the North, South and West fronts, and the 
house was not completed until 1587. 

Burghley house remains, so far as the outside 
is concerned, very much as its builder left it, only 
some outbuildings having been pulled down. It 
is a typical example of late Elizabethan architec- 
ture, and is imposing rather than beautiful. The 
interior has been very much altered and re- 
decorated, so that little of the original work 
remains. There are, however, some fine ceilings 
by Verrio, who is said to have lived at Burghley 
for twelve years while engaged on them, and by 
Laguerre, and there is some carving by Grinling 
Gibbons. All of this, as well as the great collection 
of pictures and other works of art, date from the 
time of the fifth Earl of Exeter. 

In addition to its tapestries, furniture, pictures 
and miniatures, Burghley is famous for its plate, 
which includes five silver-gilt dishes, used by the 
successive Earls as hereditary Grand Almoners, 
at coronations, as well as one which Lord Exeter 

1 Hatfield MSS., II. 52. 

2 I.e., the " elevation." Mr. Gotch seems to have overlooked this 
letter {Hatfield'' MSS., 11. iii), when he gives 1577 as the date of 
beginning the final enlargement. 



BuRGHLEY House 




By permission from the Victoria History ol the County of Northants 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 55 

had made in commemoration of the coronation of 
Edward VII/ 

The grounds were originally laid out on a large 
scale. There were enclosed courts on three sides 
of the house, and on the south extensive pleasure- 
gardens, formally arranged and including several 
ponds, a bowling-green, a mount, the " Bantam 
Grove," wilderness, pheasantry, melon-ground and 
wilderness. Beyond was the park of 1,500 acres, 
planted with long and wide avenues, the whole 
forming a dignified and beautiful setting to the 
house. All of this was ruthlessly swept away by 
" Capability " Brown, who destroyed so many of 
our finest gardens in the last half of the eighteenth 
century, and the house now rises baldly out of the 
grass.^ 

Burghley's incessant work was already telHng 
on his health. He had always been subject to 
attacks of gout and fever, and in the spring of 
1572 he had a serious illness, so that at one time 
his life was despaired of. After this attacks 
became more and more frequent, and he was 
inundated with extraordinary remedies for gout 
sent him by various correspondents. In 1575 he 
went to Buxton, where he met the Queen of Scots, 
who had received permission to visit that watering- 
place for the benefit of her health. Burghley's 
enemies at Court took the opportunity to insinuate 

^ See Victoria County History, Northamptonshire, II. 524 — 526. 

2 The present Lord and Lady Exeter have done something to remedy 
the evil ; they have made a formal garden on the south of the house. 
a new rose garden and other improvements. 



56 THE CECILS 

suspicions concerning this visit in the Queen's ear, 
and with some success, for on his return he writes 
to the Earl of Shrewsbury : — 

" I had very sharp reproofs for my going to Buxton, 
with plain charging of me for favouring the Queen of 
Scots ; and that in so earnest a sort as I never looked for, 
knowing my integrity to her Majesty, but specially 
knowing how contrariously the Queen of Scots conceived 
of me for many things passed to the offence of the Queen 
of Scots." 

Burghley even thought it prudent to decline a 
proposed match between his daughter Elizabeth, 
then nine years of age, and a son of the Earl 
of Shrewsbury, who, as guardian of Mary, 
was supposed to have been privy to what was 
going on.^ 

The Lord Treasurer paid several other visits to 
Buxton — where, if we may judge from a letter 
written by the Earl of Leicester in the summer of 
1577, he did not always submit himself to the 
discipline necessary for a cure. Leicester and his 
brother thought the water would be good for him, 
" but not if he does as they hear he did last time, 
take great journeys abroad, 10 or 12 miles a day, 
and use liberal diet, with dinners and suppers. 

1 In this year also another offer was made for the hand of Elizabeth 
Cecil by the Earl of Essex, on behalf of his eldest son (then aged six). 
Essex died in 1576, and the day before his death he wrote a pathetic 
letter, asking that his son might be brought up in Burghley 's household, 
so that he might grow up " to reverence your Lordship for your wisdom 
and gravity and lay up your commands and advices in the treasury of 
his heart." " It is sad to consider," says Hume, " that the son grew 
up to be the enemy of his father's friend : to succeed, in his enmity, 
the vile Leicester, who dishonoured his mother and deUberately ruined 
his father," 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 57 

They take another way, dining two or three 
together now Lord Pembroke is there, having 
but one dish or two at most and taking the air 
afoot or on horseback, moderately." Whether 
Burghley followed this advice we cannot say, but 
he went to Buxton in July and at Leicester's 
request sent the Queen a " tun of Buxton water." 
Elizabeth's reception of it was characteristic. 
" Your water is safely arrived," wrote the Earl, 
" and I told her Majesty of it, who now it is come, 
seemeth not to make any great account of it. 
And yet she more than twice or thrice commanded 
me earnestly to write to you for it, and after I had 
done so asked me sundry times whether I had 
remembered it or no, but it seems her Majesty doth 
mistrust it will not be of the goodness here it is 
there ; beside, somebody told her there was some 
bruit of it about, as though her Majesty had had 
some sore leg. Such like devices made her half 
angry with me now for sending to you for it." 

At this time Burghley's anxieties were aggra- 
vated by the behaviour of his son-in-law, the 
Earl of Oxford. Ann Cecil had been betrothed in 
1569, at the age of thirteen, to Sir Philip Sidney, 
and the settlements for the proposed marriage are 
preserved at Hatfield. The arrangement, how- 
ever, fell through, and in 1571 she was married 
with much pomp to Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, 
who had been brought up as a Royal ward in 
Burghley's household. " Th' Erie of Oxenforde 
hath gotten him a wyffe," wrote Lord St. John, 
" or at the leste a wyfte hath caught him. This is 



58 THE CECILS 

Mrs. Anne Cycille, whereunto the Queen hath 
gyven her consent." The Earl was eccentric, 
extravagant and dissolute, and the result was such 
as an affectionate parent might have foreseen. 
During Oxford's absence on the Continent in 
1575 — 1576, he received some reports which 
disturbed him, and coming home at Burghley's 
request, he behaved in a most extraordinary 
manner, refusing to see his wife, or to formulate 
any grounds of complaint against her. In April, 
1576, he writes to Burghley that : — 

" Until he can better satisfy himself concerning certain 
' mislikes ' he is not determined to accompany her. What 
these are he will not publish until it shall please him, 
neither will he weary his life any more with such troubles 
and molestations as he has endured, nor to please his 
lordship discontent himself. With regard to his lord- 
ship's offer to receive her into his own house, it doth very 
well content him, for there, as his lordship's daughter 
(or her mother's), rather than as his wife, his lordship 
may take comfort of her and he himself be well rid of the 
cumber, whereby he doubts not he will be well eased of 
many griefs. She hath a sufficient portion for her 
maintenance." 

He expresses his regret that this had not been 
arranged by private conference without thus 
becoming " the fable of the world and raising 
open suspicions, to his wife's disgrace and to his 
own increased misliking." ^ 

1 Hatfield MSS., II. 375. The same volume contains many docu- 
ments dealing with this subject, including notes by Burghley of his 
proposals for the separate maintenance of the Countess, memoranda of 
the " good offices rendered by him from time to time to the Earl and 
the latter 's subsequent ingratitude," and notes of the amount of money 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 59 

Some sort of reconciliation took place soon after, 
as we hear of the Earl and Countess going to 
Theobalds in the following December, " 28 servants 
with them " ; but Oxford continued to lead a life 
of dissipation and to treat his wife with great 
cruelty, while his extravagance was a source of 
constant expense to Burghley until the death of 
his daughter in 1589. " No enemy I have," he 
wrote to Walsingham two years before, " can envy 
this match." 

expended on his behalf. It may be mentioned that the children of this 
union were two sons, who died in the lifetime of their father, and three 
daughters, of whom Elizabeth married the sixth Earl of Derby : Bridget 
married the Earl of Berkshire (ancestor of the present Earl of Abing- 
don) : and Susan, the youngest, married the fourth Earl of Pembroke. 
Oxford's quarrel with Sir Philip Sidney is historic. 



CHAPTER IV 

WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY (continued) 

The years which followed the discovery of the 
Ridolfi plot, if less critical for the nation, were 
years of strenuous work and anxiety for Burghley. 
At home he had to contend with incessant intrigues 
on the part of Leicester and his party, and with 
the dangers arising from the continued activity of 
the Catholics, which culminated in the Jesuit 
mission of Campion and Parsons. Abroad the 
complications following the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, and the progress of the conflict 
between Protestantism and Catholicism in France, 
Holland and Germany produced a situation which 
would have required all Burghley's caution and 
far-seeing statesmanship to grapple with, even 
if it had not been rendered immeasurably more 
difficult and dangerous by the tortuous diplomacy 
of Elizabeth. For eleven years the Queen kept 
up negotiations for marriage with the Duke of 
Anjou, using him as a pawn in her game, and giving 
endless anxiety to her ministers, who, on the all- 
important matters of the Queen's marriage and 
the succession to the throne, were kept in a per- 
petual state of uncertainty. 

This period was marked by the increasing 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 6i 

prosperity of the country and by the voyages of 
Drake and other seamen, and Burghley's connec- 
tion with and attitude towards these matters must 
be briefly defined. From his earHest days of 
authority he had done everything in his power 
to encourage the trading classes and to protect 
and expand commerce. In the first year of his 
Secretaryship, under Edward VL, he had done 
away with the privileges of the merchants of the 
Stillyard, to the great advantage of English 
traders. Soon after the accession of Elizabeth, 
he was responsible for the reform of the currency, 
fine silver coin being substituted for the base 
money issued by her predecessors ; and by this 
measure, aided by economy in administration and 
the prevention of waste, he had in a very short 
time reduced the financial chaos to order and 
restored the national credit. He was always on 
the look-out for an opportunity to introduce new 
industries, and established communities for foreign 
weavers in Stamford and other towns. 

Above all he encouraged and subsidised ship- 
building and foreign trade. " A realm can never 
be rich," he said, " that hath not an intercourse 
and trade of merchandise with other nations," 
and he added a maxim often forgotten at the 
present day, " A realm must needs be poor that 
carryeth not out more than it bringeth in."^ 
When the Spanish Ambassador complained of 
English expeditions to the Gold Coast, Cecil 
replied, " that the Pope had no right to partition 

1 Peck. 



62 THE CECILS 

the world and to give and take kingdoms,"^ and 
when the Portuguese Ambassador made a similar 
protest he was told that, " the Queen does not 
acknowledge the right of the King of Portugal 
to forbid the subjects of another prince from 
trading where they like, and she will take care 
that her subjects are not worse treated in the 
King of Portugal's dominions than his are in 
hers."^ At the same time he refused to counten- 
ance piracy in any form, not only because it might 
lead to war, but also because of its bad effect on 
legitimate trade. 

It is not true to say that he was unsympathetic 
towards the magnificent achievements of the 
Elizabethan seamen. Though he was not one of 
those who would give up everything 

" To try the sea and win undying fame," 

he could acknowledge and appreciate the achieve- 
ments of others, so long as they did not interfere 
with the political and commercial interests which 
it was his duty to guard. In the case of Drake's 
famous voyage in the Golden Hind {'^S77 — 15S0), 
" the Queen had forbiden any revelation of the 
voyage to Burghley, who wished to avoid the risk 
of an open breach with Spain ; and Drake felt 
that he had been encouraged by Leicester and 
Walsingham in order that his aggression might 
frustrate Burghley 's efforts for peace. ' ' ^ Burghley, 
of course, found out all about the expedition, and 

1 Cal. S. P. Spanish. November 27th, 1561. 

2 Cal. S. P. Foreign. April 8th, 1561. 
8 Pollard, p. 319. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 63 

as he could not forbid it, he sent Doughty with it 
as his secret agent, instructing him, one must 
suppose, to thwart Drake's plans in every way. 
The tragic sequel is well known. Doughty was 
executed in St. Julian's Bay, after numerous acts 
of insubordination, and Drake proceeded on his 
voyage round the world, returning after nearly 
three years with his ship filled with Spanish 
treasures, of which, very naturally, the Lord 
Treasurer refused to accept a share. 

As time went on, Burghley's position became 
more and more difficult and burdensome to him. 
His increasing years and constant ill-health would 
have been enough in themselves to justify him 
in seeking some diminution of his labours. A far 
greater source of trouble was that he was no 
longer able to guide the affairs of the nation as he 
wished. His opponents in the Council were be- 
coming more powerful, and his friend and colleague 
Walsingham, who had taken his place as Secretary 
in 1581, now added his influence to that of Leicester 
and encouraged the Queen in a policy which could 
only result in war with Spain. 

The death of William Wentworth, who had 
married his daughter Ehzabeth in 1582, and fell 
a victim to the plague at Theobalds a few months 
later; and the fact that his friend the Earl of 
Sussex lay dying,^ must have added to his 

^ He died in June, 1583. The relations between the two men are 
shown in their correspondence. See, especially, a letter from Sussex 
(June 28th, 1580), in which, acknowledging a letter written by Burghley 
to the Countess, he says : " Both she and I do love, honour and rever- 
ence you as a father, and will do you all service we can, as far as any 



64 THE CECILS 

sorrow and depression. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that in the spring of 1583 he should have 
sought permission to resign ; nor can we wonder, 
on the other hand, that the request should have 
been refused. For Elizabeth, however much she 
might suffer herself to be influenced by his enemies, 
relied at heart upon Burghley's " sound, deep 
judgment and counsel," well knowing that, as she 
told Sussex a few years before, " no prince in 
Europe had such a councillor as she had." 

During these years the intrigues and plots of 
the Catholics continued without intermission. 
The " Jesuit invasion " of Campion and Parsons 
in 158 1, though in itself a complete failure, roused 
the nation to fury, and the discovery of plot after 
plot to assassinate the Queen, or to raise a revolt 
in favour of Mary, led to rigorous measures of 
repression, which Burghley was powerless to 
prevent, though he was able in some degree to 
mitigate their severity. 

His enemies took advantage of his moderation to 
spread reports that he was hostile to the cause of 
Protestantism. He was also charged with mono- 
polising the Queen's patronage, absorbing the 
government into his own hand, amassing enormous 
wealth by encroaching on the realm and the 
Commons, compelling all suitors to apply to him 
for justice, and making England in fact " regnum 
Caecilianum."'^ Burghley was informed of these 

child you have, with heart and hand, and so pray you to dispose of us 
both " {Hatfield MSS., II. 326). 

• Froude, History of England, XII. 132, note. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 65 

accusations by his confidential agent, William 
Herlle, and his indignation bursts out in his 
reply :— 

" I may say truly," he writes, " acuerunt linguas suas 
sicut serpentes ; venenum aspidum sub lahris eorum. If 
they think me guilty they need not fear to accuse me, for 
I am not worthy to continue in this place : but I will yield 
myself worthy not only to be removed but to be punished 
as an example to all others. If they cannot prove all the 
lies they utter, let them make any one point wherewith 
to prove me guilty of falsehood, injustice, bribery, 
dissimulation, double-dealing in advice in Council 
either with her Majesty or with her councillors. 
. . . They that say in a rash and malicious mockery 
that England is now become regnum Caecilianum, may 
please their cankered humours with such a device, but if 
my actions be considered, if there be any cause given by 
me of such a nickname, they may be found out in many 
other juster causes to attribute other names than mine." 

He goes on to speak of his houses at Theobalds, 
Burghley and in the Strand,^ and then proceeds to 
complain of the small rewards he had received from 
the Queen for all his long services. The fee for the 
Treasurership was no more than it had been for 
three hundred years, and would not answer the 
charges of his stable. He had been obliged to sell 
land of his own to pay his expenses at Court. The 
hardest part of the public business was thrown 
upon him. Yet of the good things which the 
Queen had to bestow nothing had fallen to 
kinsman, servant, or follower of the house of 
Cecil. 

1 These portions of the letter have already been quoted, pp. 34, 40. 
C. F 



66 THE CECILS 

" In very truth," he says, " I know my credit in such 
cases so mean, and others I find so earnest and able to 
obtain anything, that I do utterly forbear to move for any. 
Whereupon many, my good friends, do justly challenge 
me as unwise, that I seek to place neither man nor woman 
in the chamber nor without to serve her Majesty, whereby 
I might do my friends good ; and therefore indeed I have 
few partial friends, and so I find the want thereof." ^ 

As war with Spain became more and more 
certain, so did the presence of Mary in England, 
as a focus of intrigue, become more evidently a 
source of danger that must be removed. The 
discovery of her complicity in the villainous 
Babington plot was all that was now needed to 
seal her fate. It was this which convinced 
Burghley, who had hitherto been favourably 
disposed to her, that her presence could no longer 
be tolerated. Elizabeth was reluctantly forced to 
the same conclusion, though, as in the case of the 
Duke of Norfolk, she wished to avoid the responsi- 
bility for her death. When she heard that the 
execution, the warrant for which she had signed, 
had actually been carried out, she flew into a 
rage with all her ministers, and Davison, who, as 
Secretary, was technically responsible, was made 
a scapegoat ; he was deprived of his ofhce, heavily 
fined and ruined for life. Burghley himself fell into 
deep disgrace, though how far the Queen's rage 
was real and how far assumed for the sake of 
appearances, it is difficult to say. It is certain at 

1 Burghley to Herlle, August 14th, 1585 (S. P. Dom. Elizabeth. 
CLXXXI. No. 42). The portion here given is quoted by Froude, XII. 
132, note. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 67 

any rate that he was obHged to retire from Court 
for some months, and that he wrote complaining 
that she " doth utter more heavy, hard, bitter and 
minatory speeches against me than against any 
other." ^ He begged to be allowed to plead his 
excuses in person, but when at last he obtained an 
audience, the Queen heaped him with indignities, 
calling him " traitor, false dissembler, and wicked 
wretch," so that he again withdrew, until he was 
finally induced by Sir Christopher Hatton to 
return. 

If Elizabeth hoped to deceive anyone at home 
or abroad by such conduct, she failed. The 
character of Lord Burghley was too well known 
for it to be supposed that, in so important a 
matter, he had acted against her wishes. Sir 
Edward Stafford describes the effect of her 
behaviour on opinion at the French Court : — 

" I am very sorry to hear that her Majesty continues so 
offended with your lordship. She does herself and her 
service great harm. I assure you it is nuts to them here to 
hear it ; and yet for that respect she doth it, it rather doth 
harm than good, and particularly her evil countenance 
to you that makes the thing less believed than anything 
else ; for all that she can do cannot persuade them here 
that your lordship could ever be brought to do anything 
against her express will. Those that loved the Queen of 
Scots best will not be persuaded that you have advanced 
her days a minute more than the Queen willed, nor bear 
you any speech of evil will for it." ^ 

^ His letters to Elizabeth at this time may be found in Strype's 
Annals, II. 371 — 374. 

2 Stafford to Burghley, April 4th, 1587 (S. P. France). Quoted by 
Froude, XII. 356, note. 

F 2 



68 THE CECILS 

Burghley still endeavoured to exert his diplo- 
macy in the cause of peace, but his efforts were 
continually thwarted by Leicester and his party, 
who longed for war and plunder. When war 
could no longer be postponed, and reports of 
Spanish preparations caused anxiety and alarm in 
England, he remained calm and confident. " His 
courage never failed, "says his domestic biographer. 
" In times of greatest danger he ever spake most 
cheerfully, and when some did often talk fearfully 
of the greatness of our enemies and of their power 
and possibility to harm us, he would ever answer, 
' they shall do no more than God will suffer 
them.' " As usual in a crisis the Queen drove 
her ministers distracted by her parsimony, her 
irritability, and her vacillation ; and it was well 
for the country that a man of Burghley's imper- 
turbable composure was at the head of the Govern- 
ment. The lion's share of the work of organising 
the defence fell to him, and in spite of constant 
illness — so that, as he wrote to Walsingham, " I 
have no mind towards anything but to groan with 
my pain " — he was engaged in unremitting labour 
until the defeat of the Armada reheved the 
immediate strain. 

Shortly afterwards the death of Leicester 
removed his life-long rival. Two years later 
Walsingham, the other chief member of the 
aggressive party, though a statesman of a very 
different type, also died, leaving Burghley and 
his friends predominant in the Council. 

Death had also been busy in his family circle. 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 69 

In March, 1588, his mother died at Burghley 
House, at the age of eighty-seven. On her monu- 
ment in St. Martin's, Stamford, she is described as 
" a very grave, reHgious, virtuous and worthy 
matron," who " dehghted exceedingly in the works 
of piety and charity. She was crowned with much 
honour and comfort and by God's great blessing 
she lived to see her children and her children's 
children to the fourth and fifth generation ^ and 
that in a plentiful and honourable succession." 

A few weeks later he lost his daughter Ann, the 
Countess of Oxford, and in the following year 
(April 4th, 1589) his cup of sorrow was filled to 
overflowing by the death of his dearly-loved wife, 
with whom he had lived in uninterrupted happiness 
for forty- three years. Lady Burghley and her 
daughter were both buried in Westminster Abbey 
and Burghley composed a long Latin inscription 
for their tomb. He also wrote a very interesting 
Meditation on the Death of his Lady, which is still 
extant ^ ; much of it is taken up with an account 
of her various gifts and charities, which she kept 
secret from her husband during her lifetime. The 
document concludes with the words : " written at 
Colling' s Lodge by me in sorrow." 

From this great affliction Burghley never 
entirely recovered, and henceforward a certain 

1 This is an exaggeration. Her eldest great-grandson, William, son 
of Thomas, was not married until January, 1589, so that there were no 
children of the fourth generation at the time of her death. The 
monument, which is of white alabaster, 13 feet high, has figures of 
Richard and Jane Cecil kneeling at a desk, with their three daughters 
below. 

2 Among the Lansdowne MSS. at the British Museum (C. III. 51). 



70 THE CECILS 

melancholy pervaded his mind. His incessant 
work told upon him more than ever, and once 
more he vainly sought permission to retire. For 
the last ten years of his life, however, he had the 
help and loyal support of his son Robert, who after 
the death of Walsingham, practically undertook 
the duties of Secretary, though he was not form- 
ally appointed to the post till 1596. Father and 
son worked excellently together, and were on 
terms of absolute confidence and affection. And 
it was well that they were so ; for as Burghley's 
infirmities increased, so did the malice of his 
enemies become more and more persistent. In the 
Council, Essex, on whom had fallen the mantle of 
Leicester, followed the example of his father-in- 
law by endeavouring to thwart the Cecils on every 
possible occasion ; and among his chief adherents 
were Francis and Anthony Bacon, whose hostility 
to their uncle and cousin was bitter and un- 
scrupulous. 

The country was still torn by religious diffi- 
culties. On the one hand. Archbishop Whitgift, 
with the full approval of Elizabeth, was perse- 
cuting the Puritans with a severity against which 
Burghley protested in vain. On one memorable 
occasion, when the two leaders of the Brownists, 
Barrow and Greenwood, had been condemned to 
death for sedition (1593), he sent a reprieve at the 
last moment. " No papist had suffered for reli- 
gion," he said, " and Protestants' blood should 
not be the first shed, at least before an attempt 
be made to convince them." In spite of his 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 71 

efforts, however, Whitgift and the Bishops had 
their way, and the condemned men were hanged 
a week later. 

On the other hand, the Jesuits and seminarists 
renewed their activity and their plots against the 
Queen and the constitution, and they in their turn 
were met by severe methods of repression. To 
these intriguers, who were repudiated by the 
secular priests and the Catholic laity in England, 
Burghley showed no mercy, but, as he says in a 
letter written in reply to, and quoted by, the spy 
Standen, only those who professed themselves by 
obedience to the Pope to be no subjects to the 
Queen were punished by death. It was the 
political, not the religious offence, which to him 
was intolerable. 

In spite of his increasing years and failing health, 
Burghley continued to attend to the business of 
the State to the end. His letters to his son during 
the last four years of his life tell a tale of un- 
impaired devotion to the Queen and the country, 
and are full of pathetic humour. In December, 
1595, he writes that he is ready to attend the 
Council, but must presume to keep his chamber, 
" not as a potentate, but as an impotent aged 
man." But, he adds, " if the Queen will not 
mislike to have so bold a person to lodge in her 
house, I will come as I am (in body, not half a 
man, but in mind, passable)." He is obliged to 
sign his letter with a stamp " for want of a right 
hand." He is fond of making little jokes about 
his health : "I am but as a monoculus, by reason 



72 THE CECILS 

of a flux falling into my left eye," he writes to 
Essex, in July, 1597, and in October of the same 
year, in a letter to his son, " I am worse since my 
physic, being now ixovottov^ and fiovoxeLp but not 
monoculus." On his seventy-seventh birthday he 
writes, " to my verie lovyng sonne Sir Robert 
Cecile Kt. . . . Though my body be this very 
day at the period of iij^^'^xvij years, and therefore 
far unable to travel either with my body or with 
lively spirits, yet I find myself so bound with the 
superabundant kindness of her Majesty in dis- 
pensing with my disabilities as, God permitting me, 
I will be at Westminster to-morrow in the after- 
noon, ready to attend the lords. — Your old loving 
father, W. Burghley." 

It is a mistake to speak of Burghley being left 
alone and unfriended in his old age. It is true 
that he outlived the friends of his youth and 
manhood, but he was a man of strong family affec- 
tion — a characteristic of the Cecil family— and 
rej oiced in the company of his children and grand- 
children. " All your offspring are here, merry," 
he writes to Sir Robert from Theobalds a year 
before his death, and the numerous children and 
grandchildren of Sir Thomas Cecil were no doubt 
often with him. "If he could get his table set 
round with young little children, he was then in 
his kingdom," says his domestic biographer. " He 
was happy in most worldly things, but most happy 
in his children and children's children. He had 
his own children, grandchildren and great-grand- 
children ordinarily at his table, sitting about 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 73 

him, like the oHve branches . . . wherein he 
would many times rejoice as in one of God's great 
blessings." The last letter which he wrote with 
his own hand was addressed to Sir Robert (July 
loth, 1598), and shows the Queen's care for her 
old minister : 

" Though I know you count it your duty in nature so 
continually to show you careful of my state of health, yet 
were I also unnatural, if I should not take comfort 
thereby, and to beseech Almighty God to bless you with 
supply of such blessings, as I cannot, in this infirmity, 
yield you. Only I pray you diligently and effectually let 
her Majesty understand, how her singular kindness doth 
overcome my power to acquit it ; who, though she will not 
be a mother, yet she sheweth herself, by feeding me with 
her own princely hand, as a careful nurse. And if I may 
be weaned to feed myself, I shall be more ready to serve 
her on the earth. If not, I hope to be in heaven a servitor 
for her and God's Church. And so I thank you for your 
partritches. Serve God by serving of the Queen ; for all 
other service is indeed bondage to the devil. 

" Your languishing father, 

" W. BURGHLEY." 

The end came on August 4th, 1598. The 
previous evening he was seized with convulsions, 
and exclaimed, " Now the Lord be praised, the 
time is come." He then called his children 
together, " and blessed them and took his leave, 
commanding them to love and fear God and love 
one another ; he also prayed for the Queen that 
she might live long and die in peace." He lin- 
gered on until the early morning, and at eight 
o'clock passed peacefully away. The funeral 



74 THE CECILS 

ceremony was performed in Westminster Abbey 
" with all the rites that belonged to so great a 
personage," the number of mourners exceeding five 
hundred ; the body was then taken to Stamford and 
buried in St. Martin's Church, where between the 
north aisle and the chancel stands a fine monu- 
ment to his memory/ 

To the Queen, the death of her old and trusted 
minister — Pater pads patrice, as she called him at 
his funeraP — was a severe blow, and on hearing 
the news she burst into tears. She had treated 
him as she treated no one else, allowing him to sit 
in her presence, and saying, " My lord, we make 
much of you not for your bad legs, but for your 
good head." She used to visit him when ill, and 
would hold the Council in his chamber. On one 
occasion the story goes that she went to see him 
at Cecil House, wearing the high head-dress then 
in fashion, and Burghley's servant requested her 
to stoop on going through the door : " For your 
master's sake I will stoop," replied the Queen, 
" but not for the King of Spain." She knew how 
to value his sound, level-headed judgment, and 
shrewd common sense ; and no doubt she appre- 
ciated him all the more because, almost alone 
among her councillors, he never flattered or cajoled 
her, and never used his position to gain undue 
benefits for himself or his friends. 

^ " Many kinds of marble are used, and its colour and gilding and 
excellent state of preservation make it one of the finest specimens of its 
land in existence" {Victoria County History, Northamptonshire, II. 
528). 

2 Goodman, Court of James I., I. 21, 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 75 

He has defined his own principle in deaHng with 
the Queen, where they differed on points of poHcy, 
in a letter to Sir Robert ^ : — 

" I do hold, and will always, this course in such matters 
as I differ in opinion from her Majesty— as long as I may be 
allowed to give advice, I will not change my opinion by 
affirming the contrary. For that were to offend God, to 
whom I am sworn first. But, as a servant, I will obey her 
Majesty's commandment, and no wise contrary the same. 
Presuming that she, being God's chief minister here, it 
shall be God's will to have her commandments obeyed ; 
after that I have performed my duty as a counseller ; and 
shall in my heart wish her commandments to have good 
success, as, I am sure, she intendeth. You see I am in a 
mixture of divinity and policy. Preferring in policy her 
Majesty above all others on the earth ; and in divinity, the 
King of Heaven above all betwixt Alpha and Omega." 

In the end, fortunately for England, his polic 
prevailed. " Vain as Elizabeth was of her own 
sagacity," says Froude, " she never modified a 
course recommended to her by Burghley without 
injury both to the realm and to herself. She 
never chose an opposite course without plunging 
into embarrassments from which his skill and 
Walsingham's were barely able to extricate her. 
The great results of her reign were the fruits of a 
policy which was not her own, and which she 
starved and mutilated when energy and complete- 
ness were needed." Finally, then, the wonderful 
results of the reign of Elizabeth, on which the 
material and spiritual progress of the country 

1 March 13th, 1596 {Hatfield MSS.). 




76 THE CECILS 

throughout the succeeding centuries was to depend, 
were due first of all to Burghley. To him, despite 
his limitations, England owes a debt such as she 
owes to few of her statesmen. 

Burghley was of middle height, " of visage well- 
favoured and of an excellent complexion." He was 
of a gentle, good-natured disposition, considerate 
to his inferiors, hating pomp and show, and 
a man of real piety and devotion. He had an 
extraordinary capacity for work, and his domestic 
biographer states he " never saw him half an hour 
idle in four and twenty years together." Yet, in 
his moments of leisure, he was able to throw off 
entirely the cares of business and, though 
temperate in food and drink, was so " pleasant and 
merry " at table that " one would imagine he had 
nothing else to do." " At night, when he put off 
his gown, he used to say 'Lie there. Lord Trea- 
surer,' and bidding adieu to all State affairs, 
disposed himself to his quiet rest." ^ 

He lived a simple life and was content with 
simple pleasures, such as riding about his gardens 
on his mule.^ " He seldom or never played at any 
game," we read, " for he could play at none. He 
would sometimes look a while on shooters or 
bowlers as he rid abroad." And though Elizabeth 
used to enjoy hawking and hunting at Theobalds, 

^ Fuller, Holy State, ed. 1841, p. 253. 

"^ One of these animals he had for twelve years. " A beast hardly to 
be matched for my purpose," he writes, " yet now both the ' moyle ' and 
her master are grown very aged, and therefore, though I cannot amend, 
yet I would be glad to amend my old beast with a new." To Sir Ed. 
Stafford, October 2nd, 1586 {Hatfield MSS., III. 366). 




WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY, K.G., RIDING ON A MULE 
From the picture in the Bodleian Library 



WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY yy 

Burghley took no part in such sport. ^ He 
delighted in books and carried Cicero's Offices 
about with him. He is said also to have enjoyed 
the conversation of " learned men," but he was no 
patron of literature or the arts, about which he 
probably cared nothing. He neglected Spenser, 
who revenged himself in the following stanza in 
" The Ruins of Time " : — 

" O grief of grief es ! O gall of all good heart es ! 
To see that vertue should dispised bee 
Of him, that first was raisde for vertuous parts. 
And now, broad spreading like an aged tree, 
Lets none shoot up that nigh him planted bee : 
O, let the man, of whom the Muse is scorned, 
Nor alive nor dead be of the Muse adorned ! " ^ 

And the only man of letters whom he patronised, 
so far as we know, was John Norden, the topo- 
grapher, whose idea of producing a series of county 
histories would naturally appeal to his tastes.^ 

Burghley's charities were extensive. He 
founded a hospital at Stamford and endowed it for 
the maintenance of thirteen old men for ever. 
He was also a patron and benefactor of St. John's 
College, Cambridge, to which he left ;f 30 per annum 
as well as plate. He bought up corn in times of 
dearth and sold it at low prices to the poor, besides 

^ It is stated in the Victoria County History, Hertfordshire, I. 345, that 
he was " a keen sportsman and hunted in Herts," but the evidence all 
proves the contrary. 

"^ Spenser's Poetical Works, Aldine ed., IV. 304. 

3 See Hatfield MSS., IX. 255, 433, whence it appears that Sir Robert 
Cecil refused to continue his patronage after his father's death. One of 
Norden's MSS. in the British Museum has corrections in Burghley's 
handwriting. 



78 THE CECILS 

distributing money, clothing and food to those 
who were in need, both at Theobalds and in 
London. The amount of his regular charities was 
computed at £500 per annum, a very large sum in 
those days. 

His property at the time of his death was less 
than was generally expected. " Of his private 
wealth there is but £11,000," says Chamberlain,^ 
" of which £6000, and ;£8oo or ;f9oo land are left to 
his two nieces of Oxford. His lands seem less than 
we thought, as Mr. Secretary's share will bring but 
£1600 a year at most." His estates included 
manors in the counties of Northampton, Rutland, 
Lincoln, Essex, York, Herts, Middlesex and Kent. 
Of these the northern property, including Burghley, 
was left to Sir Thomas Cecil, with the exception of 
the manor and castle of Essendine in Rutland, 
which together with Theobalds and the remaining 
property in the home counties descended to 
Sir Robert. 

1 Chamberlain to Carleton, August 30th, 1598 {Cal. S. P. Dom.). 



CHAPTER V 

THOMAS CECIL, FIRST EARL OF EXETER 

At the time of Lord Burghley's death he had 
two children only surviving — Thomas and Robert. 
Of these Thomas was afterwards created Earl of 
Exeter, while Robert on the same day became 
Earl of Salisbury. The present Marquesses of 
Exeter and Salisbury are the descendants of the 
two brothers. 

Thomas Cecil was born at Cambridge on May 
5th, 1542. Of his youth and education we have 
no record, but we know that his father, to use his 
own words, " never showed any fatherly fancy to 
him but in teaching and correcting." ^ The reason 
for this coldness on the part of Sir William lay no 
doubt in the character of Thomas, who was a 
sturdy, healthy boy, with strong passions, loving 
sport, eager for a military career, and hating 
beyond all things the thought of a studious and 
sedentary life. He incurred his father's heavy 
displeasure by his " slothfulness," his extrava- 
gance, his carelessness in dress, and his " inordinate 
love of unmeet plays, as dice and cards." ^ That 

1 Letter from Sir W. Cecil to Throckmorton, May 8th, 1561 {Cal. S. P. 
Foreign) . 

2 Cecil to Windebank, September loth, 1561 [ibid.). The letters 
quoted in the next few pages are all to be found in the State Papers, 
Domestic and Foreign. 



8o THE CECILS 

a son of his should be "in study soon weary, in 
game, never " must have been a sore disappoint- 
ment to the hard-working, pleasure-shunning 
statesman, and when Thomas was nineteen, he 
determined to send him for a year to Paris with 
his tutor, Thomas Windebank. The English Am- 
bassador, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, offered them 
the hospitality of the Embassy, which Windebank 
accepted in order that the young man " might 
learn to behave himself, not only at table, but 
otherwise, according to his estate." Unfortu- 
nately, Thomas had other views, and his behaviour 
caused his father and his tutor grave anxiety. 

Travelling by way of Dieppe and Rouen, Winde- 
bank and his charge reached Paris in June, 1561, 
and soon afterwards Thomas was presented at the 
French Court to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was 
pleased to say that "if he proved as wise as his 
father, the one might be glad of the other ; for 
though she had never seen his father, yet she had 
heard of him, and did not let to say that the Queen 
had a very good servant in him." At Court he 
also witnessed " a terrible battle between a lion 
and three dogs, in which the latter were vic- 
torious." 

Sir Nicholas recommended that Thomas should 
" learn to ride, to play the lute, to dance, to play 
at tennis, and use such exercises as are noted 
ornaments to courtiers." Such advice was very 
much to Thomas's liking, and he proceeded to 
amuse himself in such a way as might have been 
expected of a spirited youth, now for the first time 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 8i 

released from strict supervision. His father was 
suspicious from the first. Before Thomas had 
been in Paris a month, he writes wishing him God's 
blessing, though " how he inclines himself to 
deserve it, he knows not." He complains that 
he receives no account of expenses, and exhorts 
his son to " begin by time to translate in French. 
Serve God daily. Take good heed of your health, 
and visit once a week your instructions." He 
adds, " write at every time somewhat to my wife," 
and from phrases in other letters we gather that 
one of his causes of annoyance was that Thomas 
sent no messages to his stepmother. 

In August he writes to Windebank that he " has 
had a watchword sent him out of France that his 
son's being there shall serve him to little purpose, 
for that he spends his time in idleness." He 
threatens to call him home, a threat which is 
repeated a few weeks later, when, writing on the 
subject of expenses (September loth), he says 
" Let me understand if the default be in my son ; 
for if I see him so untoward and inconsiderate, I 
will revoke him home, where he shall take his 
adventure with as mean bringing up as I myself 
have had. Surely I have hitherto had small com- 
fort in him, and if he deserve no better by well- 
doing, I will learn to take less care than I have done." 

In the autumn Thomas had two attacks of ague, 
and was rather seriously ill — a circumstance which 
provoked not a word of sympathy, or even acknow- 
ledgment, from his father. On his recovery, he 
settled down for a time to a more industrious life, 

C. G 



82 THE CECILS 

if we are to believe Windebank's account of how 
he spent his day. 

" In the morning, from viii. to ix. of the clock," he 
writes (November 12), " he hath one that readeth 
Munster ^ with him : that done, he hath his hour to learn 
to dance, and in these ii things is the whole of the forenoon 
consumed. After dinner at one of the clock he goeth to a 
lesson of the Institutes, whereof he wrote his determina- 
tion himself unto you — persuaded thereunto by my Lord 
Ambassador. Towards iii of the clock, he hath one that 
teacheth him to play on the lute ; wherein (and an hour's 
reading the history of Josephus de hello Judaico), he 
bestoweth the whole afternoon. After supper, he lacketh 
no company to talk with, for learning the tongue that way ; 
and besides, either recordeth on the lute or taketh some 
book in hand. This is presently the order of dividing his 
time, which I thought my duty to let you understand." 

However, this improvement did not last long. 
Sir William continued to receive bad accounts 
from Paris, and became more and more angry 
with his son, and at the same time anxious lest 
his own good name should suffer. In one of his 
letters he writes : "Sir Henry Paget returned home 
with great commendations and fraughted with 
quaHties ; but I see in the end my son shall come 
home like a spending sot, meet to keep a tennis 
court." In another, to his son, he sounds a deeper 
note. " Children," he writes, " ought to be as 
gifts of God, comfort to their parents ; but you, 
on the contrary, have made me careless of all 
children — you see how your former misbehaviour 
hath filled me full of all discontentation ; and how 

1 Munster's Cosmography. 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 83 

it will be cured, I leave it to Almighty God. I 
charge you, be serviceable to Almighty God ; and 
think of your time, that yesterday will never 
return." 

In March, 1562, he is evidently at his wits' end. 
No good has come from sending his son to France, 
but " discomfort and loss of money," and to 
Thomas " shame and increase of lewdness." He 
complains of his extravagance, and after remind- 
ing him to write to his stepmother, " and show 
yourself careful of the health of your brother ^ and 
sister, wherein, besides the satisfaction of natural 
love, you shall acquire your mother's good will," 
ends in the following characteristic manner : "I 
wish you grace to spare yourself, and by some 
virtue to recover your name of towardness, being 
here commonly reputed by common fame fleeing 
from thence, a dissolute, slothful, negligent and 
careless young man, and specially noted no lover 
of learning nor knowledge. These titles be meet 
for me to hear as thou thinkest, or else thou 
woaldest procure me some better reports. — Your 
father of an unworthy son." 

This was followed a week later by a still more 
pathetic letter to Windebank, which may be 
quoted, since, as has been well said, " it shows 
the man more clearly than reams of State 
papers." 

" Windebank," it runs, " I am here used to pains and 
troubles : but none creep so near my heart as doth this 

1 Not Robert, who was not born yet, but an infant, William, who 
died within the year. 

G 2 



84 THE CECILS 

of my lewd son. I am perplexed what to think. The 
shame that I shall receive to have so unruled a son 
grieveth me more than if I had lost him by honest death. 
Good Windebank, consult with my dear friend Sir N. 
Throckmorton, to whom I have referred the whole. I 
would be best content that he would commit him secretly 
to some sharp prison. If that shall not seem good, yet 
would I rather have him sent away to Strasburg, if it 
could be possible, or to Lorraine, for my grief will grow 
double to see him until some kind of amends. If none of 
these vv^ill serve, then bring him home, and I shall receive 
that which it pleaseth God to lay upon my shoulders : 
that is, in the midst of my business, for comfort a daily 
torment. If you shall come home with him, to cover the 
shame let it appear to be by reason of the troubles there. 
I rather desire to have this summer spent, though it were 
but to be absent from my sight. I am so troubled as well 
what to write I know not." 

Poor Windebank had lost all control over his 
charge, and on April 26th, he writes in despair : 
" I have foreborne to write plainly, but now I am 
clean out of hope and am forced to do so. Sir, I 
do see that Mr. Thomas has utterly no mind nor 
disposition in him to apply to any learning, being 
carried away by other affections that rule him, so 
as it maketh him forget his duty in all things." 
He begs Cecil to recall his son to England and 
desires that he may himself be " discharged of this 
burden and care, such as he never had the like." 
" For, Sir," he is obliged to add, " I must needs let 
you know (as my duty constraineth me) that I am not 
able to persuade him to spend his time better or to 
do any other thing than he Hketh himself, and so he 
hath told me plainly, and so indeed do I find it." 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 85 

The immediate cause of this outburst may be 
surmised from a letter written by Throckmorton 
to Cecil on the following day, in which he desires 
him to write to his son to " check his inordinate 
affection with which he is transported towards a 
young gentlewoman abiding near Paris, which the 
writer and Mr. Windebank by their admonition 
have tried to dissuade him from, but in vain. 
She is a maid, and her friends will hardly bear the 
violation of her." He urges Cecil to recall Thomas 
home, or to send him into Flanders, and his kindly 
feeling for the wayward youth induces him to add 
a hope that Cecil " will judge of his passion as 
fathers do when they censure their sons' oversights, 
committed when most subject to folly and lost to 
reason ; and not measure his son by himself, but 
repute him as other young men." 

Neither Throckmorton nor Windebank thought 
it necessary to tell Cecil the whole truth, which was 
that Thomas had actually made a promise of 
marriage to the young lady, who was a nun in an 
abbey near Paris. It appears that he had even 
planned to carry her off, having arranged to obtain 
a couple of horses, " upon credit of a merchant," 
and to provide himself with money by selling both 
his own and Windebank's clothes. He defied his 
tutor, saying that he was sure of his position, and 
that his father could not disinherit him. He had 
in fact " come to an extremity of evil meaning," 
and Windebank's anxiety to have him safely back 
in England is not surprising. 

In reply to his appeal Cecil wrote to his son 



86 THE CECILS 

commanding him to " banish his wanton lusts," 
but he ignored his tutor's request to be allowed to 
resign his post, and altogether refused to let 
Thomas come home. His injunctions, however, 
evidently made an impression, and Thomas's 
reply, written in French, deserves to be quoted in 
full :— 

" Mon tres honore seignour et pere, — 

Vos lettres m'ont apportes tant de facherie, que 
rien plus : par lesquelles j'entend que vous estes fort 
corrusee contre moy — estant adverty que j 'employe mon 
temps en poursuivant les vanites d'amour. Come je suis 
bien marry que vous entendres chooses de moy qui sont 
tant a mon desavantage (et d'avanture beaucoup plus 
qu'ilz sont), ainsi, je ne puis excuser en tout : mais come 
je suis junne, ainsi il fault que je confesse que je suis subjett 
a les affections qui gouvernent quelque fois ceux qui sont 
junnes. Pourtant, de paour de vous facher trop avec ma 
longue et facheuse lettre : et que vous ne penses que, en 
usant beaucoup de parolles, je sercherois de vous deguiser 
le mattier, je vous supplie bien, humblement de me donner 
vostre benediction ! Si, par le passe, j'ay mis en oublie 
mon devoir, je vous promette de me mestre en paine, 
doresnevant, de me monstrer, en tout, prest de vous 
obeir : priant le Creatur vous avoir tousjours en sa divine 
garde. Votre tres humble, et filz tresobeissant. 

" Thomas Cecil." 

How far these admirable sentiments were 
genuine it is impossible to say, but the immediate 
danger at any rate was averted, and after this an 
improvement certainly took place in Thomas's 
behaviour. Windebank took him to Dammart, 
twenty miles from Paris, for the summer, and 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 87 

early in August the intervention of England in the 
French war of religion, and the news of the occupa- 
tion of Havre, compelled them to leave France 
secretly and make their way to Antwerp. In 
announcing this step to Sir William, Windebank 
takes occasion to hope that he " will like Mr. 
Thomas's personage and behaviour better than in 
times past, and that his little folly past will 
increase him in wisdom." 

At Antwerp the travellers were hospitably 
entertained by Sir Thomas Gresham, the EngHsh 
agent, whose opinion of young Cecil must also have 
comforted his father. " Without flattery," he 
wrote, " you have as handsome a man to your son, 
and as toward and inclined to all virtue, as your 
own heart can desire." Sir Wilham, however, did 
not wish to see his son at present " for indeed the 
wound is yet too green for me to behold him," and 
after a short stay in Antwerp, Windebank and his 
charge proceeded to Germany, visiting Spires, 
Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Marburg, Leipzig and 
other places, and making the acquaintance of the 
Elector Palatine, and many other German poten- 
tates. At Frankfurt, in October, they witnessed 
the assembling of the Princes for the Diet — the 
Elector of Saxony with 500 horse, the Duke of 
Wiirtemberg with 300 ; the Duke of Bavaria with 
500 ; the Duke of Cleves with 600 ; the Palatine 
with 600; " and the Emperor's train with his sons 
is said to be 5,000 horse." 

In December Windebank received a letter from 
his master, thanking him for his " continual care 



88 THE CECILS 

towards my son " and expressing a wish that he 
" were out of Germany, and might see Italy, and 
pass by the Helvetians, and to Geneva. Marry, 
I wish you to have good regard to pass as unknown 
as you may, because of the malice that I know the 
papists owe me ; and could be content to avenge 
the same in my son. My meaning is that, since my 
son is abroad, he should see all things requisite, for 
I do mean at his return to move him to marry, and 
then to plant him at home." Windebank, how- 
ever, thought that Italy would be dangerous, " by 
reason of the enticements to pleasure and wanton- 
ness there," and thought it better to pass the winter 
at Strasburg, where poor Thomas's " daily exer- 
cise" was to hear a sermon in the French church, 
that he " might profit in the French tongue and 
in goodness also." 

By this time they were both longing to be 
home : Thomas bored beyond measure, and 
begging to be allowed to return and " see the war, 
which would be most agreeable to him " ; and his 
tutor urging that " for qualities commonly com- 
mended in gentlemen, Germany is not the place to 
obtain them." At last Windebank, moved by the 
state of Thomas's health, which was far from 
satisfactory, and by the dangers to which he was 
exposed owing to the " looseness in religion with 
corruption of manners that reign in those parts," 
decided in consultation with Henry KnoUys, who 
was with them, to come home, whether he had 
permission or not. What reception Thomas met 
with from his father we do not know, but the 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 89 

experience of these two years is enough to account 
for Lord Burghley's prejudice against foreign 
travel. In his famous Precepts, addressed to 
Sir Robert, he warns him not to allow his sons to 
travel, for if by so doing " they get a few broken 
languages, that shall profit them nothing more 
than to have one meat served in divers dishes." 
And we are told that in his old age, if anyone 
came to the Lords of the Council for a licence to 
travel, " he would first examine him of England, 
and if he found him ignorant would bid him stay 
at home and know his own country first." ^ 

Thomas Cecil returned to England in the Spring 
of 1563, and took his seat in Parliament as member 
for the borough of Stamford, which place he 
represented till 1576. In the following year 
(November 27th, 1564) he married Dorothy 
Neville, one of the daughters and co-heirs of 
John Neville, Lord Latimer. The marriage had 
been strongly advocated by Sir Henry Percy, 
afterwards Earl of Northumberland, who had 
married Catherine Neville, the eldest daughter. 
In a letter to Sir William Cecil - he gives an alluring 
description of the first Countess of Exeter at the 
age of fifteen. He has made, he says, " some trial 
of the conversation of the young woman : which 
I assure you is so good and vertuous, as hard it is 
to find such a spark of youth in this realm. For 
both is she very wise, sober of behaviour, womanly 

1 Peacham's Compleat Gentleman. 

2 January 21st, 1561-2. Printed in Burgon's Life of Sir T. Gresham, 
I. 451. 



90 THE CECILS 

and in her doings so temperate as if she bare the 
age double her years ; of stature hke to be goodly ; 
and of beauty very well. Her hair brown, yet her 
complexion very fair and clear ; the favour of her 
face everybody may judge it to have both grace 
and wisdom. Sir, although it be a dangerous 
matter thus much to write of a young woman, yet 
do I assure you I have said nothing more than she 
deserveth." ^ 

The young couple settled down to a quiet 
domestic life at Wimbledon, and afterwards at 
Burghley, and for several years we hear no more 
of them, beyond the bare announcement of the 
birth of their numerous children. 

In 1569 Cecil took part as a volunteer in the 
suppression of the Northern Rebellion, and gained 
the favour of the Earl of Sussex, the Commander- 
in-Chief. Again, in 1573, he served as a volunteer 
in the expedition which was sent into Scotland 
under Sir W. Drury to the assistance of the Earl 
of Murray, and was present at the siege of the 
Castle of Edinburgh. Two years later, on the 

1 By this marriage Thomas Cecil obtained the manor of North 
Crawley, Bucks, part of the ancient barony of Bedford, in virtue of the 
possession of which he officiated as Grand Alrnoner at the coronation 
of James I. Thus, as Mr. Oswald Barron has pointed out, the connec- 
tion of the Marquesses of Exeter with the " stately sinecure of the 
Grand Almonership " is territorial only. " Originally vested in the 
Beauchamps of Bedford, it was held by the earlier Lords Latimer, in 
co-heirship with others. From the later Lords Latimer, vv'ho, though 
not their descendants, inherited a portion of the Beauchamp fief, some 
of the old lands passed by marriage to the first Earl of Exeter, who was 
appointed as Lord Burghley from among their holders, to officiate at 
the Coronation of James I. since when the Earls have been similarly 
selected by the Crown at certain coronations " {Northampiotishire 
Families, p. 24). 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 91 

occasion of Elizabeth's memorable visit to Kenil- 
worth, Thomas Cecil took an active part in the 
masques and pageants which were enacted, and 
was among those who received the honour of 
knighthood. He again distinguished himself in 
the tournaments and the entertainments which 
were held in honour of the Duke of Alengon's visit 
to England in 1581, as a suitor for the Queen's 
hand. He was a strong supporter of the marriage, 
and in the previous year he had addressed a long 
letter to the Queen, containing an elaborate 
analysis of the troubles likely to ensue if the 
marriage were broken off, and the best means to 
divert these perils. At the same time he assured 
her that finding that she no longer inclined to the 
marriage, " he is also in conscience and duty per- 
suaded to yield to the way that may best please 
her, not because he thinks it best for her, for with 
his hands and heart he will defend while he lives 
her marriage, to be her only security at home and 
abroad, but because he is so faithfully addicted 
to her service that he will spend his blood not 
only in that which he thinks best for her, but in 
any other thing that she herself would have 
done. For himself," he concludes, " he humbly 
beseeches her Majesty that he may be the first man 
to be employed to spend his blood in her service in 
the place where she thinks her first peril to be, with- 
out exception of persons, time, place or matter." ^ 

1 Hatfield MSS., II. 308-10, January 28th, 1580. This letter has been 
supposed to be the work of Lord Burghley, for no reason whatever, 
except that detractors of Sir Thomas consider him incapable of having 
written it. 



92 THE CECILS 

This spirited outburst, so unlike the conventional 
addresses which the Queen was accustomed to 
receive from her courtiers, displays the character 
of the writer — a brave and unaffected man of 
action, out of place in Courts, but with all the 
finest instincts of a soldier. That he was highly 
thought of is shown by the fact that in 1585, when 
Leicester was about to be employed in the Nether- 
lands, he wrote to Burghley asking that " if her 
Majesty command my service, I may have your 
good will for my cousin. Sir Thomas Cecil, to have 
his company." ^ This request was granted and on 
the conclusion of the treaty with the States of 
Holland in August, 1585, Sir Thomas was appointed 
Governor of the Brill, one of the cautionary towns 
placed as pledges in English hands, an office which 
he resigned in 1587. Both he and his brother 
Robert are said to have served as volunteers on 
board the fleet which defeated the Armada in the 
following year, but no direct evidence of this 
statement has been found. 

Meanwhile, at home, he had been High Sheriff 
of Northamptonshire, in 1578, when Fuller tells 
us that his father " would not have him excused 
from serving his country " ; and in the Parliament 
of 1585 he was returned as Knight of the Shire for 
the county of Lincoln. Twelve years later (1597), 
he represented the same county, but in the 
Parliament of 1593 he was elected member for 
Northamptonshire. 

His family now consisted of five sons and six 

1 Hatfield MSS., III. io8. 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 93 

daughters ; two more daughters died in infancy. 
Of the sons, WilHam, the eldest, succeeded 
his father as second Earl of Exeter ; Richard 
was already (1587) member of Parliament for 
Peterborough ; Edward, afterwards Viscount Wim- 
bledon, was serving in the Low Countries ; and 
Christopher and Thomas were still boys. Lucy, 
the eldest surviving daughter, was married to 
Lord St. John, afterwards Marquess of Winchester,^ 
and on his return from the Netherlands, in 1587, 
Sir Thomas wrote to Lord Burghley, to inform him 
of the expected advent of his first grandchild.^ 

Cecil was at this time superintending the 
building operations which his father was carrying 
out at Burghley, and in the same letter he urges 
the purchase of some hangings which Pallavicini 
had delivered to him, and offers to join Burghley 
in buying them and to pay half the price ; " rather 
than your Lordship should refuse them, being 
already made fit for the rooms here, and hardly 
to get the like hangings as the times are now, I will 
strain myself therein." He adds that the buildings 
are going on very fast, and hopes that next year 
his father " can get leave to see the perfection of 
your long and costly buildings, wherein your 
posterity I hope will be thankful unto your Lord- 
ship for it, as myself must think myself most 
bound, who of all others receiveth the most use 
of it." 



> Their grandson was the first Duke of Bolton, and the present 
Marquess of Winchester is their direct descendant. 
2 Hatfield MSS., III. 276. 



94 THE CECILS 

At the same time he was engaged in building the 
great mansion at Wimbledon, called Wimbledon 
Hall, which was completed in the following year 
(1588).^ Of this building no trace remains, but 
it must have been, as Aubrey calls it, "a noble 
seat." Camden says it was Wimbledon's greatest 
ornament, " as pleasant by its prospect and gardens 
as it was stately in its structure." On the north 
side a series of terraces, with seventy steps in all, 
led down to the park, across which a straight 
avenue of elms led to Putney Common. The 
gardens covered twenty acres and were specially 
remarkable. 

The Earl of Exeter left the house at his death 
to his son. Sir Edward, who afterwards took his 
title of Viscount Wimbledon from it. By his 
heirs it was sold to Queen Henrietta Maria, and, 
after changing hands several times, it was finally 
pulled down by Sir Theodore Janssen in 1717. 

By this time Robert Cecil — who was, it must be 
remembered, twenty-one years younger than Sir 
Thomas — was already making his way in the 
political world. In spite of one or two differences, 
there existed a very real affection between the 
brothers, and Sir Thomas, especially, makes 
frequent professions of his love. Writing from 
Snape, July 9th, 1595, he apologises with charac- 
teristic humility, for his letter as " not much 
worth your reading," and adds " I can grace it 

1 The manor of Wimbledon did not come into his hands till 1590, 
when it was granted to him in exchange for the manors of Langton and 
Wibberton, in the county of Lincoln [Hatfield MSS., IV. 12 ; and 
see Gotch, The Homes of the Cecils, as before). 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 95 

unto you with no better a farewell than to assure 
you, that you shall never find friend next your 
father and your wife, that shall more truly love 
you than I will, and upon that pledge I hope I 
shall be assured of yours." ^ Similar expressions 
are frequent in his letters. " I perceive the kind 
care you have of my well-doing, which shall every 
day tie the knot of our love harder and harder. I 
wish in all your private and public designs a happy 
event, and your life long and happy to do her 
Majesty and your country service."^ Again, "I 
think you happy for your great and honourable 
fortune, and happier that the Lord has given you 
grace of judgment so to use it as to carry as much 
love and reputation, and as little envy as ever 
councillor had in any time."^ Such phrases, 
coming from such a man as Sir Thomas, who 
despised the conventional language of flattery ^ 
common at the time, do equal credit to both 
brothers, though here as in other cases the char- 
acter of Sir Robert is much less easy to understand. 
Sir Thomas seems to have felt no jealousy at the 
rapid promotion of his younger brother in the 
political world, but he occasionally grumbles that 
he receives no advancement himself. Thus on the 
death of Sir Thomas Heneage, in October, 1595, 
when a most indecent scramble took place for the 
many lucrative offices he held,^ poor Sir Thomas 

1 Hatfield MSS., V. 273. 

2 September 2nd, 1599 {ibid., IX. 345). 

3 July 2ist, 1601 {Cal. S. P. Doni.). 

* Sir Robert was one of the chief offenders. In sending him the 
patent for the " Clerkship of Sarum," the Bishop of Salisbury mentions 



96 THE CECILS 

writes : " The hope of that whereof you write unto 
me promiseth httle assurance ; for my friends are 
barred to speak for me, my enemies strong to 
dissuade, her Majesty not apt to give, nor I to 
receive so small advancement as perhaps she 
would allow me : so as, to conclude, there will be 
no such office void by his death, which her Majesty 
will think me worthy of, that I would take in place 
of this contentment, I sue for of my travail."^ 
Next year he asks for the office of President of the 
North, or for the Governorship of Berwick, and 
writes : " If my friends in this opportunity speak 
not for me, I must not look that strangers will, 
who think my Lord's greatness a sufficient fortune 
for me to look for somewhat, and as for my own 
letter to her Majesty, it hath no reply. If I be 
forsaken by a father and a brother, who are in that 
place, I must take it as an unkind fortune. Her 
Majesty cannot think that my friends have been 
much importunate, or partial unto me, having not 
all this time moved her in anything for me." ^ 

Sir Thomas succeeded his father as Lord Burgh- 
ley in 1598, being then fifty-six years old. He 
inherited large estates in Northamptonshire, Lin- 
colnshire, and Rutland, including of course Burgh- 

that he had asked for it before Sir Thomas Heneage was dead, but had 
requested the Bishop to conceal his request, which put him in an 
awkward position when several other people (including the Earl of 
Essex) also asked for it before the death of Sir Thomas. However, he 
told them the office was not in his disposition. Sir Robert also made 
efforts to obtain the Stewardship of Cambridge and the Recordership 
of Colchester and Hull {Hatfield MSS., V. 417, 433, 439). 

1 October 8th, 1595 {ibid., V. 401). 

2 July 2ist, 1596 {ibid., VI. 275). 




Photo Emery Walker 

THOMAS, FIRST EARL OF EXETER, K.G. 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 97 

ley House, completed some ten years before. In 
addition, he still possessed Wimbledon Hall, where 
he frequently entertained the Queen,^ though her 
visits were not an unmixed blessing to her subjects. 
On the first occasion of her coming, she altered the 
date of her arrival four times, till Burghley was in 
despair, complaining that " her Majesty's so often 
coming and not coming so distempers all things 
with me as upon every change of coming I do 
nothing but give directions into the country for 
new provisions : most of the old thrown away by 
reason of the heat." ^ He soon perceived that it 
was not the Queen, but his father who had stood 
in the way of his advancement, for within a few 
months of his succeeding to the title, he was con- 
stituted Warden of Rockingham Forest, and Con- 
stable of the Castle there, for life, and in August, 
1599, he was appointed President of the Council 
of the North, and Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire. 
He took up his new duties with enthusiasm. The 
Queen urged a policy of greater severity towards 
recusants, owing to the " notorious defections " 
in the north, and Burghley had soon " filled a 
little study with copes and mass-books." " I dare 
promise her Majesty," he writes to his brother, 
" that she shall be obeyed either with their purses 
(I mean of them that be recusants), or with their 
full obedience and loyalty." ^ His measures seem 
to have been effective, for six months later he 

1 See letter to Lady Guilford, April 8th, 1602 {Hatfield MSS., XII. 99). 
. 2 Letters to Sir Robert Cecil, July lyth and 19th, 1599 {ibid., IX. 236, 
239). 

^ September ist, 1599 {ibid., IX. 344). 

C. H 



98 THE CECILS 

writes : " This county is in good order. I doubt not 
that soon eighteen out of every twenty recusants 
will come to the Church. In the worst parts of this 
shire I hear that five hundred have come in this 
three weeks, so that a notable papist complained 
that the common people are declining from them." 
Nevertheless he asks permission to come to town, 
assigning among other reasons that " his health 
requires him to take some physic this spring, and 
he dare not trust any ' potycarye ' in this town 
(York) being none but that are recusants."^ 

It was about this time that Lord Burghley built 
his house at Wothorpe, which, says Fuller, " must 
not be forgot, (the least of noble houses, and best 
of lodges) seeming but a dim reflection of Burghley, 
whence it is a mile distant. It was built by 
Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, ' to retire to/ as he 
pleasantly said, ' out of the dust, whilst his great 
house at Burghley was a-sweeping.' " ^ This house 
must have been of considerable size, but it was 
dismantled at the end of the eighteenth century, 
and only ivy-covered ruins now remain. 

In February, 1601, Lord Burghley took a 
prominent part in the suppression of the Essex 
Rebellion. He was " Colonel General of the foot " 
and, " with some ten horse went into London 
and proclaimed the Earl of Essex a traitor 
with all his adherents, by the mouth of the 
King-of-Arms, notwithstanding that my Lord 
of Essex with all his complices were in the 

1 March ist, 1600 {Hatfield MSS., X. 48). 

2 Fnller's Worthies, ed. 1840, II. 499. 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER 99 

city."^ On the 26th of May following he was 
installed at Windsor a Knight of the Garter. 

On the death of Elizabeth, Bnrghley enter- 
tained the new King on his progress to London, 
first for two days at York, and afterwards at 
Burghley, " where his Highness with all his train 
were received with great magnificence, the house 
seeming as rich, as if it had been furnished at the 
charges of an Emperor." ^ A fortnight later (May 
loth, 1603) the King held his first Privy Council at 
the Charterhouse, and Lord Burghley was sworn a 
member of the Council and appointed Lord 
Lieutenant of Northamptonshire. In the following 
January he was offered an earldom, which, how- 
ever, he refused, for reasons explained in the 
following letter to Sir John Hobart, the Attorney- 
General (January 12th, 1604). " Your letter," he 
says, " found me in such estate, as rather I desired 
three days' ease of pain, than to delight to think of 
any title of honour. I am resolved to content 
myself with this estate I have of a Baron. And 
my present estate of living, howsoever those of 
the world hath enlarged it, I find little enough to 
maintain the degree I am in. And I am sure they 
that succeed me will be less able to maintain it 
than I am, considering there will go out of the 
baronage three younger brothers' livings. This 
is all I can write unto you at this time being full 
of pain : and therefore you must be content with 

1 Sir Robert Cecil to Sir G. Carew, February loth, 1601 (Birch, 

Memoirs of the Reign of Elizabeth, II. 469). 

2 Nichols, Progresses of James I., I. 95. 

H 2 



100 THE CECILS 

this my brief writing. And I give you my very 
hearty thanks for your good wishes, and think 
myself beholding to those my friends that had 
care of me therein." 

In spite of this decision, however, Burghley 
withdrew his refusal in the following year, and on 
May 4th, 1605, was created Earl of Exeter.^ 

From this time onward the Earl appears to have 
led a retired life at Burghley or Wimbledon. We 
hear of his being present at the ceremony when 
Prince Henry was created Prince of Wales, and his 
name appears as a witness to the patent, dated 
May 30th, 1610. In 1616 he was one of the 
Commissioners who treated for the surrender of 
the cautionary towns to the States of Holland, and 
he served on other commissions in connection with 
the laws against heresies and other matters of 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 

The first Countess of Exeter died in 1609, and in 
the following year the Earl, then aged sixty-eight, 
married Frances Brydges, daughter of Lord 
Chandos, and widow of Sir Thomas Smith, Master 
of Requests to James I. The new Countess was 
thirty-eight years younger than her husband, and 
younger than all of her step-children except one. 
She survived until 1663, and we shall hear of her 
again in connection with the feuds between her 
husband's grandson. Lord Roos, and the Lake 
family into which he was so unfortunate as to 

1 Robert Cecil, then Viscount Cranborne, was created Earl of Salis- 
bury on the morning of the same day, and was given precedence of his 
brother. 



THE FIRST EARL OF EXETER loi 

marry. The last few years of the Earl's life were 
overshadowed by these and other troubles. 

The unhappy marriage of his daughter, Eliza- 
beth, the young and beautiful widow of Sir William 
Hatton, to Sir Edward Coke, the Lord Chief 
Justice, reached its climax soon after her husband's 
disgrace in 1616, when she made up her mind not 
to live with him any more and appealed against 
his tyranny to the Privy Council. Her misery, 
and, we may be sure, that of her father, to whom 
she came with all her troubles, was increased by 
the marriage between her daughter Frances and 
Sir John Villiers, afterwards Viscount Purbeck, 
Buckingham's elder brother, which was brought 
about by the intrigues of the bridegroom's mother, 
backed up by the King. Coke was bribed by 
being restored to his seat at the Council, and his 
wife's protestations were of no avail. ^ In addition 
to these misfortunes. Lord Roos, Exeter's grandson 
and future heir, died in Naples under very suspicious 
circumstances in 1618 ; another grandson. Lord 
St. John, son of the Marquess of Winchester, died 
in 1621; and most grievous of all, the only child of 
the Earl's second marriage, a daughter, named in 

1 A full account of this disgraceful transaction, " the issue of which 
was a tragedy hardly inferior to that which sprung from the marriage 
of Lady Essex," is given by Gardiner (History of England, 1603 — 1642, 
Vol. III., Chap. XXIV.). Lady Purbeck deserted her husband in 1621, 
and, having given birth to a child in October, 1624, was convicted in 
the High Court of Commission of adultery with Sir Robert Howard. 
She died in 1645. Another grandchild of the Earl of Exeter got into 
trouble over his marriage. This was the son of Lady Dorothy Cecil, 
who married Sir Giles Alington. Sir Giles (the younger) married his 
niece, and was fined in the High Court ^^32,000, the marriage being 
pronounced void (April, 1631). 



102 THE CECILS 

the register of her birth, " Georgi-Anna/' ^ died in 
1621 at the age of five. 

The Earl died in February, 1623, at the age of 
eighty, and was buried by the side of his first wife 
in Westminster Abbey. ^ 

Though not a man of any great distinction, he 
was upright, honourable and good-natured. From 
his portrait we should judge him to have been of a 
kindly and humorous, if somewhat hesitating, 
disposition. James I. thought much of him, and 
after his early escapes he seems to have led a 
meritorious and useful life, and to have deserved 
to be called " right pious and charitable." Some 
years before his death he converted part of the 
old palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, at Liddington, 
in Rutland, into a hospital called Jesus Hospital, 
which he endowed for the maintenance of a 
warden, twelve brethren, and two women. He was 
an extensive benefactor to the town of Stamford, 
and in 1612 he granted to Clare Hall, Cambridge, 
lands to the yearly amount of £108, for the 
endowment of three fellows and eight scholars. 

' Charlton, Burghley, p. 122. She was born at Wimbledon, the Queen 
standing sponsor. The pedigree makers name her " Sophia Anna." 

2 The inscription on the monument in the Chapel of St. John the 
Baptist, states that the second Countess was also buried there, but, as 
a matter of fact, she was buried in Winchester Cathedral. 



CHAPTER VI 

EDWARD CECIL, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 

Of the first Earl of Exeter's five sons, the only 
one who distinguished himself was Edward, Vis- 
count Wimbledon. Of his youth or education 
nothing is recorded, until we find him, in I594. at 
the age of twenty-two, setting out to travel on the 
Continent with his elder brother Richard.^ He 
was in Florence in 1596, and was entertained by 
the Duke, Ferdinand de' Medici, " and which was 
an extraordinary favour the duke gave him leave 
to ride his own horse, and at his departure gave 
him gifts of price." ^ Later he made his way to 
the Low Countries, and made up his mind to serve 
under Sir Francis Vere. His determination is 
expressed in a letter to his uncle. Sir Robert, dated 
February 9th, 1599,^ in which he says : " My 
fortune is now to follow the wars, having had 
always heretofore a disposition thereunto. . . . 
The profession I have taken upon me wills that I 

1 Richard Cecil, of Wakerley, the second son, was born in 1570. He 
was M.P. for Westminster, Peterborough, and Stamford, and was 
knighted at Woodstock in 1616. He acquired the manor of Wakerley, 
Northamptonshire, in 161 8. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir 
Anthony Cope, and his son, David, eventually succeeded as third Earl 
of Exeter. 

^ Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, I. 27. 

8 Dalton, Life and Times of General Sir Edward Cecil, T. 15. In 
the Calendar of Hatfield MSS., X. 31, the date of this letter is given 
as February gth, 1599-1600, instead of 1598-9. 



104 THE CECILS 

vow myself to someone that will protect me, (as 
all men of the like profession doth) and I not 
knowing to whom my poor service belongeth more 
than to your Honour, maketh me hope that your 
Honour will with some little favour help my poor 
fortunes forward." 

As usual, Sir Robert responded effectively to his 
nephew's appeal, using his influence to obtain for 
him the captaincy of an English foot company. 
Edward expressed his deep gratitude for his uncle's 
" extraordinary favours " to him and added, " I 
hold it honour and happiness to spend my life for 
the honour of the house ; accounting your Honour 
the house as the principalest part of it, and myself 
the unnecessaryest."^ His ambition, however, 
was to be a cavalry commander. " If you ever 
wish to be a soldier," Sir Francis Vere told him, 
"get up on horseback."^ This was a much more 
difficult matter, for there were few troops of horse 
in the Low Countries, and the competition for 
them was great. But Captain Cecil was strongly 
supported by Vere, as well as by his father and 
Sir Robert, and in May, 1600, he obtained the 
command of a troop of cavalry, paying £soo to 
the retiring captain. Sir Nicholas Parker. A 
few weeks later he was present at the battle of 
Nieuport, and distinguished himself in a decisive 
cavalry charge. After this there was a lull in 
the military operations, and Cecil took advantage 
of it to return to England. 

1 July i6tli. 1599 {Hatfield MSS., IX. 205). 

2 Dalton, I. 37. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 105 

In the following spring he married Theodosia 
Noel, daughter of Sir Andrew Noel, of Dalby, 
Leicestershire. But he was eager for active work, 
and in July he volunteered for and was appointed 
to the command of 1,000 men raised in London 
for the rehef of Ostend, then in imminent danger 
of being captured by the Spaniards. On his 
return he was knighted by the Queen at Basing, 
the seat of his sister, the Marchioness of Win- 
chester, and soon afterwards he was chosen 
member of Parhament for Aldborough. Next 
year Prince Maurice gave him the command of all 
the English horse in the Dutch service, though 
he was not actually raised to the rank of colonel 
till 1605. 

Determined to lose nothing for the asking, Cecil 
begged Sir Robert, in 1602, to obtain for him the 
post of President of Munster, and two years later 
he again appealed to his uncle to appoint him to 
one of the important commands vacated by the 
death of Sir Francis Vere, who was Governor of the 
Brill and of Portsmouth. But there were others 
who had far better claims to these appointments 
than Sir Edward, and Sir Robert, though always 
ready to help his nephew in any legitimate way, 
was not the man to use his influence unfairly for 
the benefit of his family. 

Cecil took part in the various military operations 
of the next few years, and gained an increasing 
reputation as a brave and capable soldier. In 
1610 he was appointed general of the Enghsh 
contingent of 4,000 men which took part in the 



io6 THE CECILS 

expedition to Cleves and the siege of Juliers. His 
experience in the Netherlands, where he had 
assisted at the sieges of Grave, Sluys and other 
places, had made him proficient in everything 
connected with fortification, and at Juliers he had 
plenty of opportunity of showing his skill as an 
engineer, and his ability as a commander. Writing 
to Lord Sahsbury, Sir Ralph Winwood, the British 
ambassador at the Hague, who had himself visited 
the army investing Juliers, says, " I cannot suffi- 
ciently represent unto your Lordship his industry 
and diligence, and how by his example, to stir up 
watchfulness and care in others, he doth descend 
to the duty of a simple Captain. If anything be 
to be desired in him, it is this, that he would be 
more respectful of his person, which he doth often 
hazardously expose to danger ; quem saepe transit 
cassis aliqiiando invenit : his horse this week was 
killed under him by a shot of a culverin." ^ Other 
writers bear witness to his activity, his reckless 
courage, and his power of inspiring enthusiasm in 
his men. The town surrendered on August 22nd, 
after five weeks' siege, and Winwood declared that 
though the honour belonged of right to Count 
Maurice, yet for his part he would attribute the 
successful outcome " to the diligence and judg- 
ment of Sir Edward Cecil." 

For the next few years he passed much of his 
time at Court, where he stood high in the favour 
of the Prince of Wales, who sent him in May, 1612, 
as his proxy to stand sponsor to the child of 

1 Dalton, I 183. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 107 

Count Ernest of Nassau, at Arnheim. The tragic 
death of the Prince six months later does not 
appear to have injured his prospects so far as they 
depended upon Court favour, for in the following 
year, after the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth 
with the Elector Palatine, Cecil was appointed to 
accompany the young couple and their train on 
the journey to the Palatinate, in the capacity of 
Treasurer, while his wife was one of the ladies in 
attendance on the Princess. On the birth of 
the Elector's first child the King sent Sir Edward 
and Lady Cecil on a special mission to Heidelberg 
to report on the health of his daughter and 
grandson. 

After serving in what Motley calls " the phantom 
campaign " of 1614, he remained for the next two 
years with his regiment at Utrecht, and there his 
wife died in March, 1616. " I must confess it 
inflicted a very strong sorrow upon me," he writes 
to Sir Dudley Carleton, " for she was a dear and 
good wife to me. But it hath pleased God to 
allow me patience with my affliction, and accord- 
ing to your good counsel I do humbly submit 
myself to his pleasure." ^ A few months later it 
was already rumoured that he was about to marry 
again, the lady being Diana Drury, who was the 
younger sister of the second wife of his eldest 
brother, William, and was said to be a good 
match, having £10,000 or £12,000." The marriage, 
however, did not take place till February, 1618. 

» S. p. Holland, 1616. Quoted by Dalton, I. 236. 

"^ Chamberlain to Carleton, November 23rd, 161 6 {Cal. S. P. Dom.). 



io8 THE CECILS 

In the same year he again made efforts to obtain 
an official appointment, first as Comptroller, and 
afterwards as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 
caster, but in spite of his interest at Court, he 
failed in each case. A much more serious dis- 
appointment awaited him two years later. 

On the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, fol- 
lowed by the acceptance of the crown of Bohemia 
by the Elector Palatine, the hopes of the Protes- 
tant princes of Europe were centred on James, 
upon whose aid they relied to prevent the conquest 
of the Palatinate by Spain. Very tardily and 
grudgingly James gave permission for a small 
force to be raised for this purpose, and Sir Edward 
Cecil had every hope of being appointed to the 
command. The Duke of Buckingham had pro- 
mised him the post, and the King was favourable 
to his claim. Unfortunately, however. Baron 
Dohna, the King of Bohemia's Ambassador, passed 
over Cecil and other applicants, and insisted that 
the troops should be led by Sir Horace Vere, the 
commander of the English forces in the service of 
the United Provinces. On receiving this infor- 
mation Cecil was furious, and his anger was 
increased by the fact that, notoriously, a feud 
had long existed between Vere and himself. 
Moreover, his appointment had been publicly 
spoken of, and he had " made great promises to 
himself and his friends." ^ 

He felt himself disgraced, and at an interview, of 

1 R. Woodward to F. Windebank, July ist, 1620 {Cal. S. P. Dom. 
See Gardiner, III. 358 ; Dalton, I. 321 sqq.). 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 109 

which full accounts have been preserved, proceeded 
to vent his wrath on Dohna. After expatiating on 
his own services to the King and Queen of Bohemia, 
he complained that although he had been " nomi- 
nated by his Majesty for the present employment, 
and that the world took notice of it, and he 
(Dohna) in particular," yet Dohna had waited 
until he knew it must " prove a dishonour " to 
him, and had then nominated " one who had 
never done the King of Bohemia service." He 
went on to say that while he knew what 
was due to an ambassador, he hoped he might 
meet him one day in another place or in another 
rank, where they could " speak upon equal 
terms." ^ 

Dohna at once complained to the King of the 
treatment he had received, and James sent for 
Cecil, who, however, had gone to join his regiment 
at the Hague. Sir Robert Naunton, the Secretary 
of State, therefore wrote to Carleton, the British 
Ambassador at the Hague, instructing him to tell 
Sir Edward that his Majesty " will have him 
acknowledge his fault, and ask forgiveness both 
of his Majesty and Baron Dohna, or to expect 
condign punishment from his Majesty whenever 
he shall return hither."^ Nothing was left for 
Cecil but humbly to ask " pardon of his Majesty 
and of the Ambassador, for having forgotten what 
belonged to his quality."^ With this apology, 

1 Dohna's and Cecil's accounts of the interview are printed by Daltoa 
from S. P. Holland. 

2 July 20th, 1620 (S. P. Holland), 

' Carleton to Naunton, July 27th, 1620 {ibid.). 



no THE CECILS 

James expressed himself well satisfied, and so the 
incident ended. 

Sir Dudley Carleton also succeeded at the same 
time in bringing about a reconciliation between 
Vere and Cecil, thereby greatly increasing the 
efficiency of the English army in the Netherlands. 

Cecil, with the Dutch army, accompanied Vere 
and his regiment as far as Wesel, where he had 
the mortification of seeing his successful rival 
march off to the seat of war, while he himself 
remained inactive for a couple of months within 
sight of a force of 6,000 Spaniards, with whom, 
owing to the existence of a truce, they were on 
the most friendly terms. The only thing of 
interest connected with the campaign which need 
be recorded here is the following " Military 
Rhyme " :— 

" Some say Sir Edward Cecil can 
Do as much as any man ; 
But I say no — for Sir Horace Vere 
Hath carried the Earl of Oxford where 
He neither shall have wine nor cheer. 
Now Hercules himself could do no more." ^ 

On his return to England, Sir Edward was 
elected member for Chichester, and took his seat 
in the Parliament which met in January, 1621. 
He has been credited with a fine speech, during 

^ Court and Times of James I., II. 208. The " dissolute and reckless " 
Earl of Oxford, who accompanied his cousin, Sir Horace Vere, to the 
Palatinate, was the son, by a second marriage, of the Earl who proved 
so bad a husband to Lord Burghley's daughter, as already related. He 
was himself connected with the Cecils through his marriage with Lady 
Diana, Sir Edward's niece. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON iii 

this session, on the importance of granting an 
immediate supply to the Palatinate. This speech 
was published under his name, and attracted con- 
siderable attention, but there seems to be no doubt 
that it was a forgery, and was never uttered in 
Parliament by Cecil or anyone else.^ He was at 
this time a member of the Council of War, which 
was considering the best means of securing the 
safety of the Palatinate, and no doubt he lent his 
name to the pamphlet, in order to promote what 
he considered a good cause. ^ 

The session was a stormy one, and at the last 
sitting before the adjournment on June 4th, Sir 
John Perrot made his momentous speech, in which, 
after alluding to the danger in which the true reli- 
gion stood, both at home and abroad, and recalling 
the King's declaration at the beginning of Parlia- 
ment, that " if the Palatinate could not be re- 
covered by treaty, he would adventure his blood 
and life in the cause," he appealed to the House to 
make a public declaration before they parted, 
" that if the treaty failed, they would, upon their 
return, be ready to adventure their lives and 
estates, for the maintenance of the cause of God, 
and of his Majesty's royal issue." 

1 A copy exists in the British Museum, and it is printed in the Cal. 
S. P. Dom., February 5th, 1 620-1. Professor Gardiner, who was 
the first to discover that it was not authentic, says : " Whoever was 
the author, the speech does him great credit. There is a fine ring in 
its language from beginning to end. Nothing, in the course of writing 
this work, has been more painful than the act of drawing my pen, in 
obedience to the laws of historical veracity, through the extracts which 
I had credulously inserted in the text " (IV. 29, note). 

2 Dalton, I. 346. 



112 THE CECILS 

As soon as Perrot sat down, Cecil rose and said, 
" This declaration comes from Heaven. It will 
do more for us than if we had ten thousand soldiers 
on the march." The motion was unanimously 
agreed to amidst scenes of enthusiasm such as 
have rarely been witnessed in Parliament.^ 

Cecil continued to advocate a war with Spain, 
in order to save the Palatinate, but James still 
relied on Spanish professions, and was eager for the 
marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Infanta ; 
and it was not until the disastrous visit of the 
Prince and Buckingham to Madrid had destroyed 
all hope of that alliance that a breach between the 
two countries became inevitable. The death of 
James in March, 1625, g^-ve Charles and Bucking- 
ham a free hand, and remembering the success of 
the Cadiz expedition of 1596, the first adventure 
they decided upon was to send a large fleet with 
10,000 men, under the supreme command of 
Buckingham himself, to raid the Spanish coast. 

For the last few years Cecil had spent much of 
his time in the Low Countries, and had taken part 
in all the most important military operations. He 
had not omitted to press his claims to advance- 
ment, and his opportunity had now come. On 
May 4th, 1625, the Duke of Buckingham wrote, 
informing him of the proposed expedition, and 
appointing him second in command to him- 
self. " I will use no other expression to you,*' 
his letter ends, " than that I have put into your 
hands the first infinite trust and pawn of my 

1 Gardiner, IV. 128, 129. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 113 

goodwill that ever I had in my power to bestow, 
which I have done with confidence and affection." ^ 
Cecil's command was to be that of Lord Marshal 
of the Army on board the fleet and Deputy to 
Buckingham, and this appointment he gratefully 
accepted, at once setting about the necessary 
preparations. But the occasion was not to pass 
without a display of his jealous and quarrelsome 
temper. At the same time that Buckingham had 
written to him, he had also informed Sir Horace 
Vere that the States-General could not dispense 
with his services, but that the King was pleased to 
create him a Baron. ^ One would have supposed 
that Cecil, having been chosen for so high a 
command, though junior to Vere, would have been 
pleased that his old comrade-in-arms should also 
be honoured ; yet on receipt of the news, he wrote 
to Buckingham as follows : 

" The occasion of my boldness in presenting your 
Excellency with these lines, is for that, contrary to my 
expectation, I hear that there is a commission a drawing 
to make Sir Horace Vere a Baron of England. It is 
strange to me at this time to hear it, for that I know not 
what worth there is more in him, than in those that are 
equal in profession and before him in birth. If your 
Excellency have made choice of me to be your second in 
this journey of so much charge and expectation, and to 
make me less than I was, what courage shall I have to 
do you service ? or what honour will redound to your 
Excellency ? But although I write it, yet I cannot beheve 
it, for that I know you of that judgment and nobleness 
that you will rather add to your faithful servants, 

1 Dalton, II. 94- 

2 Ibid., II. 95- 

C. I 



114 THE CECILS 

although they beg it not, than to disgrace them and make 
them less." ^ 

Meanwhile preparations for the great expedition 
went forward, but it soon became evident that 
success under the conditions prevailing was more 
than doubtful. Money, food, clothing and stores 
were all deficient, and the raw recruits who were 
pressed into the service were ignorant of even the 
rudiments of drill and discipline, and no attempt 
was made to train them. The officers were little 
better than the men, being mostly untried and 
appointed by favour rather than merit ; and 
the ships were mainly merchantmen hastily con- 
verted. The expedition was unpopular from the 
first, and distrust of Buckingham's intentions 
was so intense that Parliament refused to grant 
supplies. 

Finally, in August, Buckingham very wisely 
decided not to command in person, and though he 
still absurdly styled himself " Generalissimo of the 
fleet," he appointed Cecil to the supreme command 
on sea and land, under the title of Admiral and 
Lieutenant-General, " the greatest command," as 
was said at the time, " that any subject hath had 
these hundred years." ^ 

When it is considered that neither Cecil nor his 
Vice-Admiral, the Earl of Essex, had any experi- 

^ July 19th, 1625 (Dalton, II. 108). The same authority records a 
dispute which took place in 1622 between Cecil and Sir Edward Vere, 
who was his second in command in the absence of Sir Horace, and 
resulted in a challenge, the duel only being stopped at the last moment 
by the intervention of the Prince of Orange (II. 6, note). 

2 Court and Times of Charles I., I. 53. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 115 

ence whatever of naval warfare, one cannot wonder 
that some surprise was expressed at the appoint- 
ment. " Would any man take upon himself the 
charge of a general by sea," wrote Admiral 
Monson, " that had never passed further than 
between England and Holland ? It were good to 
know whether he sought the employment or 
whether it was put upon him against his will ; if 
he was led upon it by ambition let him answer his 
error and that with severity ; if it was procured 
by others they ought to have the same chastise- 
ment."^ Cecil, however, was not the man to 
throw away so splendid a chance of distinguishing 
himself, even had he known — as apparently he 
did not — of the miserable condition of his ships 
and men. Before the fleet sailed he had realised 
that an enterprise undertaken so late in the year, 
with unseaworthy ships, discontented crews, raw 
troops, and ignorant officers, had little hope of 
success, but it was then too late to draw 
back. 

On September 15th, the King, accompanied by 
the Duke of Buckingham, came himself to Ply- 
mouth to inspect the fleet and the troops, and to 
endeavour to put some enthusiasm into the officers 
and men. Buckingham, who was still sanguine, 
induced the King to announce that Cecil was to be 
raised to the peerage, under the title of Viscount 
Wimbledon.^ He seems to have forgotten, says 

1 Churchill, Naval Tracts, III. 238. Quoted by Dalton. 

2 Wimbledon House had come into his possession on the death of 
his father in the previous year. 

I 2 



ii6 THE CECILS 

Gardiner, " that honours granted before success 
has crowned an undertaking are apt to become 
ridiculous in case of failure." 

And from the very beginning failure dogged the 
ill-fated expedition. When it actually sailed, 
early in October, it was met in the Channel by a 
violent south-west gale, and put back in the 
greatest disorder to Falmouth and Plymouth. 
Finally, the fleet, consisting of seventy-six English 
and twenty Dutch vessels, with 5,000 sailors and 
10,000 soldiers on board, put to sea on October 8th. 
The object in view was to destroy the King of 
Spain's shipping, to seize some important Spanish 
town, and above all to intercept the treasure-ships 
coming from the West Indies and the River Plate.^ 
But no plan of action had been decided upon, and 
Cecil throughout proved entirely incapable of 
coming to any decision whatever. On the slightest 
provocation he called a council of war, and it was 
not till the fleet had arrived, without serious 
damage, in Spanish waters, that Puerto de Santa 
Maria in Cadiz Bay was selected as the point of 
attack. The operations which followed might, 
under more favourable circumstances and under 
less incompetent leaders, have been crowned with 
success. The Spaniards were unprepared, and the 
whole garrison of Cadiz consisted of 300 men ; and 
had the first attack been followed up with energy, 
the town could not have held out. Instead of 
this, time was frittered away in bombarding a 
fort and in marching hungry troops for twelve 

1 Glanville's Voyage to Cadiz, p. 32. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 117 

miles in pursuit of a non-existent enemy/ By 
this time Cadiz had received strong reinforcements 
and " was apprehended to be so strongly fortified 
that it was not to be carried without a siege " ; 
moreover, the commanders were convinced by 
experience that their troops were unfit for any 
serious enterprise ; and, above all, it was time to 
be on the look-out for the Plate fleet.^ The troops 
were therefore re-embarked, the fort evacuated, 
and six days after its arrival in Cadiz Bay, the 
fleet again put out to sea. 

Cecil still hoped to be able to cover his ill-success 
by the capture of the treasure-ships, and he there- 
fore took up his position in the Atlantic to await 
their arrival. Unfortunately, the Spanish fleet, 
having heard rumours of war, had taken a 
southerly course, and sailing up the coast of 
Africa, crept into Cadiz Bay two days after the 
English had left. Of this Cecil was ignorant, and 
from November 4th to 17th, his foul and leaky 
ships " beat it out at sea," until, battered by 
storms which they were in no state to resist, and 
with their crews diminishing daily owing to the 
putrid condition of their food and drink, they made 

* Cecil was himself in command of this adventure. Finding that 
there had been a false alarm, instead of returning, he marched on, in the 
hope of something turning up. Meanwhile most of his men had had no 
food since the previous day, and, finding a store of wine in some houses 
near where they halted for the night, they threw off all discipline, broke 
violently into the cellars, and very soon the whole army was raving 
drunk. The only thing to be said for Cecil in this affair is that he had 
given instructions that provisions should be provided, though he had 
omitted to see whether they were carried out (Gardiner, VI. i8, 19 ; 
Glanville, pp. 59, 60). 

^ Glanville, p. 66. 



ii8 THE CECILS 

their way home as best they could. A succession 
of gales did still further damage, and Cecil himself, 
on the Anne Royal, arrived in Kinsale Harbour on 
December nth, having already lost 130 men from 
disease, and with 160 sick on board. The rest of 
the fleet suffered as severely, and it was many 
months before all the vessels which survived found 
their way back into English ports. 

So ended this disastrous enterprise, which was 
fitly commemorated in the following lines : 

" There was a crow sat on a stone ; 
He flew away and there was none. 
There was a man that ran a race ; 
When he ran fast, he ran apace. 
There was a maid that ate an apple ; 
When she ate tvv-o, she ate a couple. 
There was an ape sat on a tree ; 
When he fell down, down fell he. 
There was a fleet that went to Spain ; 
When it returned, it came again." ^ 

For the fiasco Buckingham must bear the chief 
part of the blame. Not only was he responsible 
for the inception of the expedition and for its 
equipment, but he filled all the most important 
positions with his own nominees, whom Wimbledon 
was unable to reject. But even with the materials 
at his command, had he shown any decision or 
dash, Cecil should have had no difficulty in sacking 
Cadiz and destroying the ships in the harbour ; 
while his failure to intercept the Plate fleet was due 
far more to incapacity than to ill-luck. He lacked 

1 Court and Times of Charles I., I. ii8. 



EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 119 

the qualities necessary for success, and being 
raised to a position of great responsibility, was 
only able to prove that he was utterly unfit for it. 

The Anne Royal remained in Kinsale harbour for 
several weeks to re-fit, and on putting to sea was 
again hindered by bad weather, so that Cecil did 
not reach London till the beginning of March. To 
his great indignation he was at once summoned 
before the Privy Council to answer charges of mis- 
management brought against him by the Earl of 
Essex and other officers of the expedition. But 
Buckingham stood by him, and the perfunctory 
examination which took place resulted in his 
acquittal. The King at first showed his disap- 
pointment and displeasure by refusing to receive 
him at Court ; but he soon regained the Royal 
favour, and in a short time he seems to have 
entirely recovered his prestige. 

On May 4th, 1626, he took his seat in the House 
of Lords as Viscount Wimbledon,^ and at the end 
of the year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of 
Surrey. He was sworn a member of the Privy 
Council in February, 1628, and on the death of the 
Earl of Pembroke two years later, he received the 
important appointment of Captain and Governor 
of Portsmouth for life. 

Being still a colonel of a regiment in the army 
of the States-General, he was present at the siege 
of Groll in 1627, ^^^ 3,t Bois-le-duc two years later, 
but in 1 63 1 he relinquished the command which 

1 His patent as Baron Cecil of Putney and Viscount Wimbledon is 
dated November 9th, 1625 (Dalton, II. 258). 



120 THE CECILS 

he had held for six-and-twenty years and took final 
leave of Holland/ 

From this time onward he displayed great 
energy, acting on numerous commissions and 
enquiries as member of the Privy Council — no 
sinecure in those days — and of the Council of War. 
He incurred the hatred, not unmixed with fear, 
of the civil authorities of Portsmouth, by his 
strenuous endeavours to strengthen the fortifica- 
tions of the town. His name is prominent in all 
the military commissions of the time, and he was 
recognised as the chief authority on all matters 
connected with the Army, into which he introduced 
many necessary reforms. 

His second wife died in May, 163 1, and he had 
still no son and heir. He therefore determined to 
marry once more, and in 1635, he being sixty- three 
and his bride seventeen, he allied himself to 
Sophia Zouch, daughter of Sir Edward Zouch of 
Woking. His ambition was realised by the birth 
of a son, Algernon, in December, 1636 ; but the 
boy survived only for a few months and his father's 
hopes were then finally shattered. 

Viscount Wimbledon died on November i6th, 
1638, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, 
Wimbledon, where a monument of black marble, 
erected by his daughters, preserves a record of his 
achievements. 

1 Mr. Dalton suggests that he fell into disgrace with the Dutch 
Government, owing to a dispute about compensation for the damage 
done by a fire at Cecil House, which Wimbledon had leased as a resi- 
dence for the Dutch Ambassador, and that, in consequence, he was 
removed from his command (II. 311). But he was in his sixtieth year, 
and his activities at home demanded all his time, 



CHAPTER VII 



THE EXETER LINE 



Lord Wimbledon's eldest brother, William, 
who succeeded his father as second Earl of Exeter, 
was born in 1566. In spite of his own experiences 
of foreign travel Sir Thomas sent him to Paris with 
his tutor, Mr. Bird, at the age of seventeen, and 
two years later he was travelling in Italy, where 
the reputation of his grandfather, Lord Burghley, 
stood him in good stead. He visited Rome, 
contrary to his father's express command, and 
wrote to Walsingham, requesting him to intercede 
with Sir Thomas for him.^ Enemies of the Cecils 
reported that he had become a Catholic,^ as they 
did again when he was in Italy fifteen years later. 

In January, 1589, he married Elizabeth Manners, 
Baroness Roos, or de Ros, daughter of the Earl of 
Rutland. She was only thirteen years old, and 
being a ward of the Crown, could not marry with- 
out licence, which she had not obtained. For this 
offence she and her husband were fined ;£6oo, it 
having been shown in their defence that the late 
Earl of Rutland desired the marriage, and that the 
Countess had given her consent to it.^ Their 

' Cal. S. P. Doni., November 24th, 15S5. 

2 Hatfield MSS., III. 130. 

8 Barron, Northamptonshire Families, p. 29. 



122 THE CECILS 

happiness was short-lived, for Lady Roos died in 
1591, after giving birth to one son, WiUiam, who 
succeeded her as Lord Roos. The old Lord 
Burghley greeted the birth of his first great- 
grandson with the pious ejaculation, " God bless 
him to follow my purposes, but not my pains nor 
dangers," ^ a prayer which, unfortunately, was not 
granted. 

In 1600 Cecil was again travelling in Italy, and 
had the misfortune to incur the Queen's suspicion 
that he was " going to Rome." His wife — he had 
married again — writes to the all-powerful Sir 
Robert to ask him to assure her Majesty that he 
had no such intention. " I had thought," she 
says, " his very name in his travel would have 
proved his greatest foe, which I see is more subject 
to vipers at home," " and Cecil himself writes from 
Venice (February ist, 1600), " Those which in my 
absence do slander me with coming hither for 
remission of sins and to become a Catholic, do 
themselves injury and not me in reporting so great 
an untruth. I write not this to trouble you to 
defend my innocency against these leprous tongues, 
because it is the nature of certain poor spirits that 
if such bitter fanns [? fangs] should not have their 
natural passage, they would presently fall into 
some grievous disease."^ 

William Cecil was knighted in 1603, on the 
occasion already described, when his father enter- 

1 Historical MSS. Commission, Report XII., App. IV. p. 282. 

2 Hatfield MSS., X. 21. 

3 Ibid., X. 25. 



THE EXETER LINE 123 

tained King James at York. After this we hear 
of him occasionally as taking part in functions at 
Court, and serving on various commissions, but he 
did not distinguish himself in any way. A thick- 
and-thin adherent of Buckingham, his judgment 
is shown by the fact that he wrote to the Duke 
after the fiasco of the expedition to Rhe congratu- 
lating him on his "miraculous success."^ He 
succeeded his father as Lord Burghley in 1605, 
and as Earl of Exeter in 1623. He was Lord 
Lieutenant of Northampton, a member of the 
Privy Council, and a Knight of the Garter ; and 
he died in July, 1640, and was buried in 
Westminster Abbey. 

By his second wife, Elizabeth Drury, daughter 
of Sir William Drury, of Halstead, the Earl had 
three daughters only : Elizabeth, who married 
Thomas Howard, Earl of Berkshire : ^ Diana, a 
noted beauty, who married Henry Vere, eighteenth 
Earl of Oxford,^ and afterwards Thomas Bruce, 
Earl of Elgin : and Anne, who married Henry, 
Lord Grey of Groby, afterwards Earl of Stamford. 
Lord Exeter's only son having predeceased him, 
his daughters conveyed considerable portions of 
the family estates to their husbands, and the manor 

1 Cal. S. P. Dom., November 3rd, 1627. 

2 Their eldest daughter married John Dryden. 

3 See p. no, note. "The Earl of Oxford after 20 months' imprison- 
ment was released out of the tower and conveyed to the Earl of 
Exeter's, and on New Year's Day married the Lady Diana Cecil, with 
a portion of ^30,000." Chamberlain to Carleton, January 3rd, 1624 
{Court and Times of James I., II. 445). She took part in a masque 
at Court on one occasion, and the popular cry was : " Great is Diana 
of the Cecilians " {ibid., II. 351). 



124 THE CECILS 

of Stamford passed to Lord Grey, who took his 
title from it.^ 

Lady Exeter survived until 1658, when she died 
at the age of eighty, " leaving behind her an 
example for piety, wisdom, bounty, charity, and 
all goodness, fit for imitation of all ladies of honour 
and virtue."^ She was a staunch adherent of the 
Parliament during the Civil War, and in 1643 her 
house at Newark was sacked and her " rich 
furniture pillaged." Three years later she sent a 
petition to Parliament praying for relief " out of 
the compositions of delinquents' estates," owing 
to the great losses she had incurred " by the 
burning, plundering, and spoiling of her houses and 
goods about Newark and elsewhere." " I have 
chosen," she says, " to bear these losses in silence, 
till I can no longer forbear, on account of my many 
wants and debts." ^ 

Lord Exeter's son, William, Lord Roos,* had a 

1 The manor was bought back by the eighth Earl of Exeter, 1747. 

^ From the inscription on her monument in St. James', Clerkenwell. 

8 House of Lords MSS., Hist. MSS. Com., Report VII., App. p. 153. 

At this time (1646) there were no fewer than four Countesses and 

Dowager Countesses of Exeter hving, as will be seen from the following 

abbreviated table : — 

Thomas Cecil, ist Earl 
(1542— 1623). 
Married (i) Dorothea Nevill (died 1609), 
(2) Frances Brydges (died 1663). 

! 

William, 2nd Earl Richard 

(1566— 1640). (1570— 1633). 

Married (i) Elizabeth Manners, Lady Rocs (died 1591). | 

(2) Elizabeth Dniry (died 1658). David, 3rd Earl 

I (? i6oo — 1643). 

William, Lord Roos Married Elizabeth Egerton (died 1688). 

(1591— 1618). I 

Married Elizabeth Lake. John, 4th Earl 

(1628— 1678). 
Married(i), in 1646, Frances Manners (died 1669) 
(2) Mary Fane (died 1681). 

* The title was granted to him by letters of credence from the King, 
on the death of his mother in 1591, the year after his birth. His claim 



THE EXETER LINE 125 

brief but by no means uneventful career. He 
spent most of his youth in travelHng on the 
Continent, and was accompanied on his first tour 
by his tutor, John Molle. On their arrival in 
Rome in 1608, Molle, who had rendered himself 
obnoxious to the Papal authorities by translating 
portions of Duplessis-Mornay into English, and 
had been persuaded by his pupil, against his own 
better judgment, to cross the Alps, was arrested 
by the Inquisition and thrown into prison. To 
all appeals for his release the Pope replied " with 
assurances that he should be well treated and 
efforts made for his conversion ;" and in spite of 
the efforts of Lord Salisbury and others for his 
release, the unfortunate man was kept in prison 
for thirty years until his death at the age of 
eighty.' 

Roos himself, who already felt leanings towards 
Catholicism, was well received and entertained in 
Rome, and afterwards at Venice, and he then 
proceeded, " both out of curiosity and because he 
is very rich," to visit the Courts of Vienna, 
Munich, Buda-Pesth, and Prague.^ We hear of 
him next at Madrid, where he intended to remain 
a year in order to learn the language, had not his 
great-uncle, Lord Salisbury, expressed a wish that 

to the title was afterwards disputed by the Earl of Rutland, but was 
confirmed in his favour. On his death without issue it reverted to the 
Manners family. 

1 Court and Times of James I., I. 77 ; Cal. S. P. Dom., October 2nd, 
1608 ; January 3rd, 1610; Cal. S. P. Venetian, September 6th, 1608. 

2 See Cal. S. P. Venetian, March 30th, 1609. Roos sent home 
from Rome a collection of statues, which he presented to the Earl of 
Arundel. 



126 THE CECILS 

he should leave that country/ The result of 
this journey was that he became a violent partisan 
of Spain, and was accustomed henceforward to 
vilify every other country, including his own. 
Early in 1611 he was in Paris, whence he carried 
off Sir Thomas Puckering and his reluctant tutor, 
the Rev. Thomas Lorkin, on a tour through the 
Low Countries. Lorkin has given a sad account 
of his behaviour, which was gross in the extreme 
and set a very bad example to Sir Thomas. He 
shows also that Lord Roos was at this time a 
Catholic, " if they may be accounted of any 
[religion], which make conscience of none."^ 

In 1612 he was employed as Ambassador to 
the Emperor Matthias, to congratulate him on his 
accession, and in 16 16 the King sent him on a 
special mission to the Court of Madrid, " osten- 
sibly to congratulate Philip on the recent marriages 
of his children, but in reality to plead the cause 
of the Duke of Savoy ,^ with whom Philip was at 
war. Lord Roos set out in great style, with six 
footmen, eight pages, twelve gentlemen, and 
twenty ordinary servants, and sailed " in a good 
and fair ship of the King's, called the Dread- 
nought." ^ He met with a very gratifying reception 

1 Winwood's Memorials, III. 104 ; Cal. S. P. Dom., March 13th, 1610 
(wrongly calendared 161 1) ; May 20th, 1610. 

2 Lorkin to Sir Adam Newton, March, 161 1 {Harleian MSS., 
No. 7002). Roos, however, in a letter to Lord Salisbury, thanks him 
for not believing the rumours of his having turned Romanist, and 
" hopes he will never so disgrace his parentage " {Cal S. P. Dom., 
March 13th, 1610 (not 1611) ). 

3 Gardiner, III. 50. 

* Chamberlain to Carleton, October 12th, 1616 {Court and Times of 
James I., I. 426). 



THE EXETER LINE 127 

as he passed through Portugal and Spain, and in 
a letter to the Earl of Arundel ^ he has described 
the somevN^hat embarrassing audiences which he 
had with Philip III. and his son, both of 
whom stood immovable like statues, leaning 
against a table, and gave grave and courteous 
replies without any change of countenance. At 
his departure the King presented him with a 
jewel worth ^^5,000, but though peace was soon 
afterwards concluded between Spain and Savoy, 
contemporary gossip judged that Lord Roos had 
" succeeded ill in his negotiation, another argu- 
ment of his great weakness."^ 

Shortly before he had set out upon this mission, 
Roos had married Elizabeth Lake, daughter of 
Sir Thomas Lake, who had succeeded the Earl of 
Salisbury as Secretary of State. The marriage 
was in every way disastrous. " He was a 
dissolute, a heartless youth, and both Lady Roos 
and her mother, Lady Lake, were alike, artful 
and unprincipled women." ^ A quarrel soon arose, 
owing to an arrangement about the conveyance 
of some property, which the Lakes tried to extort 
by unfair means. On Lord Roos' return from 
Spain, he was subjected to every kind of insult 
and threat by his wife and his mother-in-law, 
until he could stand their " diaboHcal devices " 
no longer and determined on flight. Pretending 

1 January, 1617 (Lodge, Illustrations of British History, III. 286). 

2 Ed. Sherburn to Carleton, April 6th, 1617 [Cal. S. P. Dom., IX 

458). 

3 Gardiner, Vol. III., Chap. XXVII. See also Spedding, Life and 

Letters of Bacon, Vol. VII. 



128 THE CECILS 

that he was going into Yorkshire, he took " a 
good equipage, with sixteen or twenty men," and 
at Huntingdon gave them the sHp, saying that 
he was called back urgently to London. He then 
made his way to Rome, having with him letters 
of introduction from Gondomar, the Spanish 
Ambassador.^ 

In his absence Lady Roos proceeded to make 
public the scandalous charges with which she had 
already frightened him in private. She accused 
him of incestuous connection with the Countess 
of Exeter, the young wife of his grandfather ; and 
she further accused the Countess of endeavour- 
ing to poison her, in order to conceal her 
guilt. 

The quarrel came to the ear of the King, 
who did his best to have the matter settled, with- 
out being brought into Court. This, however, was 
impossible, and the case came before the Star 
Chamber in March, 1618. 

In order to bolster up their case. Lady Roos 
and her mother produced a paper purporting to 
be a full confession by the Countess of her guilt. 
They declared that all the parties had met at 
Wimbledon, and that the Countess had there, 

1 " The Earl of Exeter complains very much of the Spanish Ambas- 
sador, that he having from time to time afforded him many favours, 
and given entertainment both at his house in Northamptonshire, at 
Wimbledon, and often here in town, upon assurance that he would 
procure the delivery of Molle out of the Inquisition of Rome, he hath 
been so far from performing his promise, that he hath now, lastly, 
seduced his [grand] son Roos, and sent him to Rome with such recom- 
mendations, as he is in danger to be utterly deprived of him." Chamber- 
lain to Carleton, January loth, i6iS {Court- and Times of James I., 
I- 454)- 



THE EXETER LINE 129 

sitting in the window of the great chamber, 
written and signed the confession. This being 
denied, the King asked for further evidence, 
whereupon they stated that one Sarah Swarton, 
their maid, had stood behind the hangings at 
the far end of the room and had heard the Countess 
read over what she had written. To this Sarah 
swore before the King, who, however, was still 
unsatisfied, and took an opportunity of visiting 
Wimbledon Hall and inspecting the room. He 
then discovered, first, that the room was so large 
that anyone speaking in the window could not 
be heard at the far end, and secondly, that the 
hangings were two feet short of the ground, so 
that no one could hide behind them. " Oaths 
cannot confound my sight," said James. 

Lord Roos had already written to the King, 
denying the charges, and hoping that his Majesty 
" will not allow Lady Roos's title to save her 
from any severity, she being a base creature, a 
dishonour to his grandfather's house, and not 
worthy to wipe the shoes of the Countess of 
Exeter, whom she has wronged." ^ Anxious to 
have Roos's own testimony, however, the King 
sent for him by an express messenger, who also 
brought him a formal pardon for having left the 
kingdom without a licence. But before the 
messenger arrived news was received by Lord 
Burghley of his son's death at Naples.^ " Rumour 

1 Cal. S. P. Dom., June ist, 1618. 

2 Lorkin to Puckering, July 14th and July 28th, 1618 {Court and Times 
of James I., II. 80, 83). 

C. K 



130 THE CECILS 

attributed his death to poison, but such a rumour 
was too certain to spring up to merit attention 
in the absence of all corroboration." ^ 

So complicated were the charges and counter- 
charges in the case — the documents filling 17,000 
sheets of paper — that the trial did not take place 
till February, 1619. It occupied five days, the King 
being present throughout and finally delivering 
the sentence, by which the Lakes were fined 
upwards of £22,000, and were condemned to 
imprisonment during his Majesty's pleasure. Lady 
Roos was compared to the " old serpent," having 
beguiled her daughter, Eve, while she in her turn 
had seduced her father, Adam. Poor Sarah 
Swarton came off very badly. She " was adjudged 
to the Fleet, from thence to be whipt to West- 
minster, and after from the same place to 
Cheapside, there to be branded with F. A., 
signifying false accusation, one letter on either 
cheek ; to return back again to the Fleet, there 
to remain until they do weary of her, and then 
to be sent to Bridewell, there to spend and end 
her days." " However, the prisoners were told 
that they would be set free, if they acknowledged 
their guilt, and Sarah at once confessed, and her 
sentence was remitted. Lady Roos also confessed 
in June, but her father did not submit until the 
following January, and her mother held out 
until May, 162 1. 

1 Gardiner, III. 192. 

2 Lor kin to Puckering Febiuary i6th, 161 9 {Court and Times of 
James I., II. 139) 



THE EXETER LINE 131 

The second Earl of Exeter was succeeded by 
his nephew, David, son of Sir Richard Cecil of 
Wakerley.^ His estate was seriously diminished 
by the portions allotted to his uncle's three 
daughters, and the dowers of his aunt and grand- 
mother. He took the side of the Parliament in 
the Civil War, and is mentioned as having offered 
£500 towards the cost of raising a troop of horse. 
He was Lord Lieutenant of Rutlandshire in 1642, 
and died on April i8th, 1643, having enjoyed his 
title for less than three years. 

David Cecil married Elizabeth, daughter of the 
first Earl of Bridgewater, by whom he had six sons 
and three daughters. At his death, however, only 
two of his children survived : Frances, who 
married Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of 
Shaftesbury, and John, who succeeded as fourth 
Earl of Exeter, being then fifteen years of age. 
Shortly afterwards, Burghley House was occupied 
by the Royalist troops, and from them re-captured 
by Cromwell. The operations are thus described 
by a contemporary writer ^ : — 

" Much also about the same time [July 27, 1643], came 
certain intelligence to London by letters out of Lincoln- 
shire, that about 1,000 of the Cavaliers from Newark and 
Bever Castle hovered and roved about Stamford and 
Wothrop House, a great and strong seat in those parts, but 
were bravely molested and chased thence by that brave and 
most worthily renowned Commander, Colonel Cromwell, 
and at last forced to take sanctuary in a very strong and 

' See p. 103, note. 

2 John Vicars, in God's Ai'ke over-topping the World's Waves. Quoted 
by Charlton, p. 135. 

K 2 



132 THE CECILS 

stately stone-built house, not far from Stamford also, 
called Burghley House, situated in a large park and sur- 
rounded with a strong stone wall, but God seasonably 
sending Colonel Hubbard and Colonel Palsgrave to his 
assistance, both with men and ordnance, the brave Colonel 
with this auxiliary strength immediately advanced to the 
said Burghley House, sat down before it, and having com- 
modiously planted his ordnance, shot at it two or three 
hours (beginning about three of the clock that morning), 
but could do no good that way, the house being so strongly 
built. ^ Then the noble Colonel sounded a parley to the 
enemy, and offered them quarter, to have their lives and 
liberty to depart without their weapons ; but the enemy 
utterly refused the motion, resolutely answering, that they 
would neither take nor give quarter. Hereupon the 
valiant Colonel gave present order to storm and assault it 
with his musketeers ; whereupon the fight grew very hot, 
and was bravely performed on both sides for awhile, and 
with much difficulty and danger on ours, the enemy being 
very active and confident ; and thus the assault continued 
divers hours, till at last the Cavaliers' courage began to fail, 
ours pressing on them very fiercely and furiously, so that 
they sounded a parley from within the house : whereupon 
the as virtuous as valourous Colonel, commanding presently 
that not one of his soldiers should dare to shoot or kill any 
man during the parley on pain of death, notwithstanding 
their former cruel and bloody answer to his foresaid 
proffer of quarter to them : in brief they soon concluded 
upon quarter for their lives, and so they took them all, 
being two colonels, six or seven captains, three or four 
hundred foot, and about an hundred and fifty or two 
hundred horse, with all their arms and ammunition, 
together with the pillage of the whole house." 

1 Charlton states that the attack was directed against the south side of 
the house, and that several indentations, supposed to be the marks made 
by cannon balls are visible below the first floor windows on that side. 



THE EXETER LINE 133 

Cromwell is said to have shown great courtesy 
to the inmates of Burghley House after its capture, 
and to have presented the Countess of Exeter, 
widow of the late Earl, with the portrait of 
himself by Walker, which is still in the collection 
there. The Countess being a staunch Parliamen- 
tarian, this was no more than her due. 

Of John, the fourth Earl of Exeter, nothing is 
recorded except that he was for many years Lord 
Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and that he 
married first, Frances, daughter of the eighth 
Earl of Rutland,^ and secondly, Mary, daughter 
of the Earl of Westmorland. He died in 1678 at 
the age of fifty. 

He left two children, for both of whom he had 
provided v/hat he considered suitable alliances. 
John, his son and heir, was married, all unwilling, 
to a wealthy widow, Anne, Lady Rich, only 
daughter of the third Earl of Devonshire and 
Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of the second Earl of 
Salisbury. " He can endure my Lady Rich as 
well as any other wife," wrote a friend of the 
family,^ " but he had rather have none." How- 
ever, there is no reason to suppose that he regretted 
his marriage. 

His sister. Lady Frances Cecil, was described by 
Lady Campden^ as " one of the impudentest 
women as ever was known or heard of." Married 

* Another daughter married the third Earl of Salisbury. See p. 230. 

2 Lady Sunderland to Lady Giffard, January 28th, 1668 {Life and 
Letters of Lady Giffard). 

3 In a letter of August 25th, 1681. Quoted by G. E. C, Complete 
Peerage, s.v. Scudamore. 



134 THE CECILS 

to a worthy but elderly invalid, Viscount Scuda- 
more, her great beauty inflamed the ardour of 
Thomas (afterwards Lord) Coningsby, to whose 
importunities she at last yielded.^ The guilty 
pair were surprised by Mrs. Coningsby, from 
whose fury they fled on horseback — the lady in 
the scantiest attire. As soon as he discovered 
their flight, Lord Scudamore, " full of pity for 
his wife's youth and frailty, resolved to tear her 
from that infamy she was pursuing," and sent 
his servants in all directions in pursuit of the 
fugitives. They were soon tracked to an inn some 
thirty miles distant, whereupon Coningsby pre- 
cipitately mounted his horse and fled, leaving 
Frances to her fate. Disgusted at his cowardice, 
and now full of remorse, the unfortunate lady 
returned to her husband, who " received her with 
tears of tenderness and commiseration," and 
proceeded to bring an action against Coningsby 
" for invading his property." The villain, how- 
ever, " did not scruple at all to sacrifice her fame 
to his own security," and had the effrontery to 
plead that the lady ran away with him. This 
cowardly behaviour, we are told, " so far ruined 
his credit with the ladies, that he was forced to 
be regular, and confine his caresses to his wife. 
The meanest woman would not be brought to 
trust him for fear he should betray her, and report 
as before, that she had seduced him." He was a 



1 The story is told at great length in Mrs. Manley's New Atlantis, II. 
217^ — 240, and, if the details are more picturesque than accurate, the 
main outline is true to fact. 




BURGHLEY HOUSE— THE STONE STAIRCASE 
From a drawing by Joseph Nash, 1841 



THE EXETER LINE 135 

violent and unscrupulous politician, and at his 
death, in 1729, well deserved Pope's epitaph : 

" Here lies Lord Coningsby : be civil, 
The rest God knows, or else the devil." ^ 

John, fifth Earl of Exeter, was a man of some 
talent and considerable taste. Keenly interested 
in art and letters, he travelled extensively on the 
Continent, and acquired a reputation for learning 
and culture. After the Revolution, he refused 
to take the oath of allegiance to William IIL, and 
when the King paid a visit to Burghley, while 
passing through Stamford in 1695, Lord Exeter 
contrived to be absent. William was so much 
pleased with the place, that he repeated his visit 
on the following day, and when one of his 
attendants asked him how he liked Burghley, he 
is said to have replied, " that the house was too 
large for a subject." ^ 

To the fifth Earl is mainly due the fine collection 
of pictures and works of art of which Burghley 
is justly proud. Unfortunately, during a long 
residence in Rome at the time when Luca 
Giordano and Carlo Dolci were flourishing, he 
employed these two second-rate painters to such 
an extent as to produce " a surfeit " of their 
pictures.^ He also made considerable alterations 
to the house itself, and was responsible for the 
carvings by Grinling Gibbons and the ceilings by 
Laguerre and Verrio, of whom the last-named 

1 Spence's Anecdotes, 1820, p. 13. 

2 Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, I. 237 ; Chxarlton, p. 141. 

3 Walpole's Letters, Mrs. Paget Toynbee's ed. XIV. 291. 



136 THE CECILS 

was engaged at Burghley for a space of twelve 
years, at an annual salary, it is said, of £1,500.^ 
The portraits of himself, his wife and his children 
by Lely and Kneller^ bear further witness to his 
love of art, and among the other artists he 
patronised was William Wissing, who painted 
portraits of several members of the family. 
Wissing died while at Burghley in 1687, ^^d 
the Earl erected a monument to his memory in 
St. Martin's, Stamford. 

Another still more illustrious inmate of Burghley 
was Matthew Prior, who, about the year 1689, ^^ 
the recommendation of the Master of St. John's 
College, Cambridge, was appointed tutor to the 
Earl's sons. Several of his poems are dated from 
Burghley,^ notably the lines " To the Countess of 
Exeter," beginning : — 

" What charms you have, from what high race you 
sprung, 
Have been the pleasing subjects of my song : 
Unskill'd and young, yet something still I writ, 
Of Ca'ndish beauty join'd to Cecil's wit." 

Lord Exeter, with the Countess and three 
children, " in all thirty-six in family," set out in 
September, 1699, to go to the jubilee at Rome, 
intending to " continue in those parts " for three 
years. He was, however, taken very ill at Turin, 

1 Charlton, p. 216. 

2 The Earl formed a weird society at Burghley, called " The Honble. 
Order of Little Bedlam," of which Kneller was a member. See Hist. 
MSS. Com., 5th Report, 399. 

3 See Introduction to Prior's Poetical Works, by R. B. Johnson 
(Aldine edition.^iSga, I. xxii). 



THE EXETER LINE 137 

on his way to Rome, and though he then recovered, 
he returned to France and died at Issy, near 
Paris, in September, 1700/ He was buried in 
St. Martin's, Stamford, where a magnificent 
monument of white veined marble, made at 
Rome by Monnot, and brought home by the 
Earl himself, commemorates his virtues and 
talents, and the worth and beauty of his wife. 

Of their children only two were married, 
John and Elizabeth. The latter married Charles 
Boyle, fourth Earl of Orrery, whose edition of 
the Epistles of Phalaris originated the famous 
controversy with Bentley. She died in 1708 at 
the age of twenty-one, leaving a son, John, 
afterwards fifth Earl of Orrery, the friend of 
Pope and Swift.^ John (1674 — 1721), who suc- 
ceeded as sixth Earl of Exeter, was fond of 
hawking, horse matches, and other country sports, 
but has no other claim to distinction. Neverthe- 
less, he added to the wealth of the family by 
making two very judicious marriages, first with 
Annabella Rennet, daughter of Lord Ossulston, 
with a fortune of £30,000, and secondly with 
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Brownlow, Bart., 
of Belton, Lincolnshire, with £1,200 a year, and 
£10,000 in money.^ 

His eldest son, John (1700 — 1722), died 
unmarried, after holding the title for only a few 
months. He was succeeded by his brother, 

1 LuttreU's Diary, IV. pp. 563, 564, 599, 681, 683, 684. 

2 Elwin and Courthope, Works of Pope, VIII. 369, note. 

3 LuttreU's Diary, III. 178 ; IV. 563. 



138 THE CECILS 

Brownlow, the eighth Earl (1701 — 1754), and he 
in his turn by his son, Brownlow, the ninth Earl 
(1725 — 1793), a man of more activity and more 
culture than his immediate predecessors. Besides 
sitting in two Parliaments as member for Rutland, 
and acting as Lord Lieutenant of that county, 
he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the 
Society of Antiquaries, and received the degree 
of LL.D. at Cambridge in 175 1. A keen musician, 
he was one of the directors of the Handel Com- 
memoration in 1784, and his private concerts 
were famous. Further, he refurnished Burghley 
House, and added to the library and to the art 
collections. Though twice married, he left no 
issue, and on his death, in 1793, the title descended 
to his nephew, Henry, whose father, Thomas 
Chambers Cecil, married Charlotte Gormiez or 
Garnier (said, by family tradition, to have been 
a Basque), and lived on the Continent, dying in 
France in 1778. 

Henry, the tenth Earl and first Marquess of 
Exeter, was born at Brussels in 1754. For many 
years he was member for Stamford, and like his 
father, was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of 
the Society of Antiquaries, but his chief claim to 
distinction lies in his matrimonial adventures. 
His first wife was Emma, daughter and heiress 
of Thomas Vernon, of Hanbury, Worcestershire, 
to whom he was married in 1776 at St. George's, 
Hanover Square. Only one child was bom, a 
son, who died in infancy ; and in May, 1789, after 
thirteen years of married life, Mrs. Cecil ran away 



THE EXETER LINE 139 

with the Rev. WilHam Sneyd, a curate. The 
story, as divulged at the " Action for Criminal 
Conversation," tried before Lord Kenyon on 
June 26th, 1790, shows all the parties in a very 
unfavourable light. Counsel for the defence 
endeavoured to show that Mr. Sneyd " fell into 
the snare of this young woman," who, though 
" possessed of no personal beauty or attractions," 
yet " from the rank and dignity which she held 
in the country as wife of Mr. Cecil, had an oppor- 
tunity of drawing into her snare an unfortunate 
young man, who possessed an handsome person 
which happened to attract her attention." He 
went on to declare that "it is a fact absolutely 
notorious that no person in the family dreamed of 
anything like a criminal intercourse between these 
parties, until it was confessed by this unhappy 
young man, in the hour of sickness, who was 
desirous of making some sort of atonement to the 
person whom he had injured, and to obtain his 
forgiveness." In spite of these protestations, the 
cross-examination of the servants, witnesses for 
Mr. Cecil, tended to estabhsh the fact that the 
whole household of twenty-four persons, and their 
master, were perfectly well aware, for weeks before 
the defendant's confession, of what was going on. 
After the confession, Mr. Sneyd left Mr. Cecil's 
house with his father, and Mrs. Cecil " fell down 
on her knees and implored her husband to allow 
her once more to go and see this defendant, and 
to take her final leave of him, and to give up his 
embraces for ever ; and that she would return to 



140 THE CECILS 

her duty." Accordingly, Mr. Cecil took his wife 
to Birmingham, where Mr. Sneyd was staying, 
and leaving her there, to be brought back by 
Mr. Sneyd senior, returned home. Mrs. Cecil, 
however, immediately persuaded her lover to rise 
from his sick bed, and to fly with her, partially 
disguised, to Exeter, where they lived together 
at an hotel under the names of Mr. and 
Mrs. Benson. After these revelations it is scarcely 
surprising that the jury found for the plaintiff 
with £i,ooo damages, thus entitling him to a 
divorce, which he obtained by Act of Parliament 
in June, 1791. 

It can hardly be doubted that Henry Cecil 
connived at his wife's seduction and elopement, 
and, in fact, in less than a year after she had left 
him, and before the trial, he succumbed to the 
charms of a " village maiden," named Sarah 
Hoggins (aged seventeen), and wooing her under 
the name of John Jones, led her to the village 
altar at Bolas Magna, in Shropshire (April, 1790). 
After the divorce he married her again at 
St. Mildred's, Bread Street, but the marriage 
seems to have been kept secret until after his 
accession to the title in 1793. Of the Countess 
we know little, though Horace Walpole records 
that he " heard a good account of her, especially 
of her great humility and modesty on her exalta- 
tion," and adds : "if she is brought into the 
fashionable world, I should think the Duchess of 
Gordon would soon laugh her out of those vulgar 
qualities, though she may not correct her diction 



THE EXETER LINE 141 

and spelling." ^ We have no reason to suppose 
that she sank under " the burthen of an honour 
unto which she was not bom " ; and all we know 
is that she died in 1797, at the age of twenty- 
three, in giving birth to her fourth child. Thus 
Tennyson's ballad, which is based on this some- 
what sordid episode, has very little foundation 
in fact, and it seems a pity that he should have 
attached a real name to his romantic version of 
the story. 

The Earl was still in the prime of life. His 
experiences of wedlock had possessed a pleasing 
variety, but he had not yet exhausted its 
possibilities. Having taken his first wife from 
the landed gentry, and his second from the 
people, it remained for him to choose a third from 
the higher ranks of the peerage. Accordingly, 
in August, 1800, he replaced his peasant Countess 
by a divorced Duchess, Elizabeth, relict of the 
sixth Duke of Hamilton.^ In the following year 
Lord Exeter was advanced to the dignity of 
Marquess, and in 1804 he died, at the age of 
fifty, leaving three young children by his second 
wife.^ 

The second Marquess, who succeeded to the 
title at the age of nine, was educated at Eton 
and St. John's College, Cambridge, as usual in 

1 Walpole's Letters, Mrs. Paget Toynbee's ed., XV. 333. 

2 She had been divorced in 1794. The Duke died in 1799. 

^ The only daughter, Sophia, married Henry Pierrepont, and their 
daughter, Auguste, married Lord Charles Wellesley, brother of the Duke 
of Wellington, and was the mother of the third and fourth Dukes. 
Another brother of the Duke of Wellington married Lady Georgiana 
Cecil, sister of the second Marcjuess of Salisbury. See p. 240. 



142 THE CECILS 

this branch of the family. In 1824, he married 
Isabella, daughter and co-heir of William Stephen 
Poyntz, of Cowdray. He was appointed Lord 
Lieutenant of Rutland in 1826, and of Northamp- 
ton in 1842 ; received the Garter in 1827, ^^^ 
was sworn of the Privy Council in 1841. He 
held various offices in the Household, being 
Groom of the Stole to the Prince Consort from 
1841 — 1846 ; Lord Chamberlain in 1852, and 
Lord Steward in 1858 — 9. A bigoted Tory, 
though he did not participate in the debates 
in the House of Lords, he voted consistently 
against all the great reforming measures of the 
period. 

His unreasoning hatred of reform of any kind 
led him to oppose with all his power the proposal 
of the Great Northern Railway to carry their 
main line through the town of Stamford. The 
result of his obstinacy was that the company 
were obliged to alter their plans and carry the 
line through Peterborough, to the irreparable 
loss of Stamford. In the end Lord Exeter had 
to build a branch line from Essendine to Stamford 
at his own expense, and in order to pay for this, 
most of his London property had to be sold. 

The Marquess was a member of the Jockey 
Club, and kept an extensive racing stud. He 
was particularly fortunate with the Oaks, which 
he won three times : with Augusta in 182 1, with 
Green Mantle in 1829, and with Galatea in 1832 : 
but he never succeeded in winning the Derby. 

In 1844 he entertained the Queen and the 



THE EXETER LINE 143 

Prince Consort at Burghley for three days, when 
the Prince stood sponsor to the Lady Victoria 
Cecil. The company included Sir Robert Peel 
and other ministers, and the cost of the entertain- 
ment was colossal. 

Disraeli has given an interesting picture of 
Burghley and its inmates at this time : — 

" The exterior," he writes, " is faultless, so vast and so 
fantastic, and in such fine condition that the masonry 
seems but of yesterday. In the midst of a vast park, 
ancient timber in profusion, gigantic oaks of the days of 
the Lord Treasurer, and an extensive lake. The plate is 
marvellous. The History of England in the golden pre- 
sents from every sovereign, from Elizabeth and James I. 
to Victoria and Albert — shields, vases, tankards, etc. 
Our host shy, but very courteous ; Lady Exeter tall, 
still handsome, engaging, and very pious. Great battues 
every day ; five hundred head slaughtered as a matter of 
course. The interior not equal to Belvoir, the state 
rooms, lofty and painted by sprawling Verrio, open one 
into each other by small side doors, like a French palace 
or Hampton Court, and so a want of consecutive effect. 
There is, however, a Hall as large as a college hall, and 
otherwise very striking. But the family live in a suite of 
rooms fit only for a squire of degree, and yet the most 
comfortable in the world." ^ 

On his death in 1867, the second Marquess was 
succeeded by his son, William AUeyne (1825 — 
1895), who sat for twenty years in Parliament 
as member for South Lincolnshire, and afterwards 
for North Northamptonshire, and held various 
offices at Court. He was Militia Aide-de-Camp 

1 Disraeli's Correspondence, January 24th, 1850. 



144 THE CECILS 

to the Queen, and colonel in i860 ; Treasurer 
of the Household, 1866 — 7 ; sworn of the Privy 
Council, 1866 ; Captain of the Corps of Gentle- 
men-at-Arms, 1867 — 8 and 1874 — 5. But his 
chief interest lay in the management of his 
estates, which were considerably encumbered by 
his father's extravagance, and by the prevailing 
depression. On all matters connected with agri- 
culture he was a recognised authority, and he 
achieved greatness in pisciculture and in breeding 
shorthorns. Though obliged to cut down his 
establishment, he liberally supported all local 
charities, and performed his duties as a magistrate 
and as a guardian. He was also an enthusiastic 
yachtsman, and a general favourite among all 
classes. 

The third Marquess married Georgina Sophia 
Pakenham, daughter of the Earl of Longford, a 
foolish woman, of whom Peel said he thought 
she was " the sort of person who would do pretty 
well for a public man ; she wouldn't ask what the 
division was when he came home. " ^ They had four 
sons and six daughters. The eldest son, Brownlow, 
who succeeded his father in 1895 at the age of 
forty-six, enjoyed the title and estates for only a 
short three years. But he had lived for some 
time at Deeping St. James, between Spalding and 
Stamford, and was well known and immensely 
popular in the district. He had been Captain in 
the Grenadier Guards (in which regiment his 
two brothers, Lord William Cecil and Lord John 

1 Sir M. Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, January 25th, 1894. 







A. ~*^''''^ ""Hisses- 





BURGHLEY HOL'SE— THE CENIKAL '^..Ll-I 
From a driwing by Joseph Nash, 1841 



THE EXETER LINE 145 

Joicey- Cecil also served), and was afterwards 
Hon. Colonel of the 3rd and 4th Batallions, 
Northamptonshire Regiment. He represented 
North Northamptonshire in Parliament for twenty- 
eight years before his accession, was Groom-in- 
Waiting to the Queen in 1886, Vice-Chamberlain 
to the Queen in 1891 — 2, and was a member of 
the Privy Council. Like his father he took great 
interest in local affairs, and was a familiar figure 
on political platforms in Lincolnshire. He married 
Isabella, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas 
Whichcote, Bart., and the present Marquess (born 
in 1876) was their only child. In 1901 Lord Exeter 
married the Hon. Myra Rowena Sibell Orde- 
Powlett, daughter of Lord Bolton, and has two 
sons and one daughter. 

Here, for the present, ends the chronicle of the 
Exeter branch of the family. 



c. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ROBERT CECIL, FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 

Turning now to the Salisbury branch of the 
family, we are confronted with the enigmatical 
figure of Sir Robert Cecil, the only son of Lord 
Burghley by his second wife, Mildred Cooke. 

Few great statesmen are so little known, and 
of few is it more difficult to form a satisfactory 
judgment. The private life of Lord Burghley 
lies open for all to read ; the character of Sir 
Thomas Cecil is simple and presents few problems. 
But the first Earl of Salisbury hid his real self 
behind a mask, and even the mass of papers at 
Hatfield throw only a confused light on his 
character. They tell us almost nothing of his 
private life, and perhaps the strongest impression 
we gain from them is the extraordinary affection 
shown by his friends to this man whose own 
reserve is so impenetrable. Yet many of those 
who knew him best seem always to have dis- 
trusted him. He was surrounded by enemies and 
detractors, and subjected to every form of 
personal vilification ; and much of the mud 
thrown both during his life and after his death has 
stuck to him. As Gardiner remarks, it was 
difficult for his contemporaries " to imagine that 
the man who succeeded whilst Essex and Raleigh, 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 147 

Northumberland and Bacon failed, could have 
prospered except by the most unscrupulous 
treachery." It is certain that the sympathy 
naturally felt for such splendid figures as Essex 
and Raleigh, and the suspicion that Cecil was 
in some way responsible for the tragedies of 
their careers, has involved him in undeserved 
odium. 

The date of Robert Cecil's birth is always said 
to be uncertain, but one of Burghley's many 
memoranda of family events preserved at Hatfield, 
gives it as June ist, 1563, a date which on other 
grounds may be accepted as probable. He was 
a sickly youth, and was educated at home under 
private tutors, until he entered St. John's College, 
Cambridge, in 158 1. Three years later he went 
to Paris, where he acquired an excellent knowledge 
of French. 

" He was his father's own son," says Sir Robert 
Naunton,^ adding, " he was a courtier from his 
cradle, and had his sufficiency from the instructions 
of his father, the tutorship of the times and Court, 
which were then the academies of art and 
cunning." He early gained the favour of the 
Queen, and in 1588 he accompanied the mission 
sent by Elizabeth to treat with the Prince of 
Parma, and headed by Lord Derby. From 
Ostend, Cecil and a young Spencer were despatched 
to Ghent to announce their arrival, and were 
received by the Prince with elaborate politeness. 
Writing to his father, Robert mentions that 

1 Fragmenta Regalia, p. 138. 

L2 



148 THE CECILS 

though the garrison of Ostend had run short of 
provisions, game was plentiful in the shape of 
pheasants and partridges, which " flew continually 
within the walls/' He had himself " a setting 
dog and nets," and " hoped to eat partridges in 
tent of his own catching, asking no favours of the 
lord of the soil."^ 

On his return from Ostend he began to help 
his father in his multifarious labours, and prac- 
tically exercised the office of Secretary, though he 
was not actually appointed to the post until 
July, 1596. He was a Knight of the Shire for 
the county of Hertford, in the Parliament of 
1589, and continued to represent the county 
until the end of the reign. In 1591, on the 
occasion of the great entertainment given to her 
Majesty at Theobalds, he received the honour of 
knighthood, and soon afterwards was sworn of 
the Privy Council. 

That he should thus have gained a secure 
position in a Court which prized so highly all those 
exterior graces and accomplishments which he 
lacked is, at first sight, somewhat surprising. 
The Venetian Ambassador speaks of his " noble 
countenance and features," but, as Naunton says, 
" his face was the best part of his outside." He 
was very short — not above five feet two inches 
in height — and ill-formed, and though not " hump- 
backed," as his enemies called him, had an 
ungainly appearance, owing to his large head and 
round shoulders, and to this, the dress of the 

1 5. p. Spain, Quoted by Froude, History, XII. 403. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 149 

day, and especially the large ruff, contributed/ 
Anthony Bacon, in a letter to Essex,- tells an 
anecdote which shows that his diminutive stature 
was a source of merriment to the Court. " Lord 
Wemyss," he says, " coming out of the Privy 
Chamber after an audience with the Queen, asked 
the Lord Chamberlain for Sir Robert Cecil. 
' Why, Sir,' said he, ' he was within.' ' By my 
soul,' saith the Lord Wemyss, ' I could not see 
him.' ' No marvel,' said Sir George Carey, ' being 
so little.' Whereat the Lord Wemyss confessed 
he burst out of laughing." 

Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, he was 
the only one of Elizabeth's courtiers whose career 
suffered no reverse. Her affection for his father, 
and his own great abilities — above all, perhaps, 
his steadiness and discretion, in which qualities 
his rivals were lamentably deficient — counted 
for much. But even his personal defects may 
have helped to maintain him in the Queen's 
good graces. She liked to treat him with a 
mixture of affection and raillery, calling him her 
" pigmy," or her " elf," and though such terms 
galled him, he had the good sense and good temper 
to hide his mortification. His very infirmities, 
too, perhaps roused her dormant spirit of pro- 
tection, and provoked her to defend him against 
the slanders and malice of his rivals. A story is 
told, which belongs to this period, and has been 

1 See article on " Hatfield House," by J. S. Brewer, in his Enp.lish 
Studies, to which I am considerably indebted. 

2 January 24th. 1594 {Hatfield MSS., V. 98). 



150 THE CECILS 

interpreted as showing that Cecil was a '* man of 
gallantry." It occurs in a letter from W. Browne 
to the Earl of Shrewsbury/ and is as follows : — 

The young Countess of Derby wore about her 
neck " a picture which was in a dainty tablet." 
One day the Queen, " espying it, asked what 
fine jewel that was. The Lady Derby was curious 
to excuse the showing of it ; but the Queen 
would not have it, and opening it and finding 
it to be Mr. Secretary's, snatched it away, and 
tied it upon her shoe, and walked long with it 
there ; then she took it thence and pinned it on 
her elbow, and wore it some time there also." 
Hearing of this, Cecil " compounded " some 
verses, and " got Hales to frame a ditty unto it." 
In reading this story it is well to remember, what, 
of course, was perfectly well known to Shrewsbury 
and his correspondent, that the Countess of Derby 
was a daughter of the Earl of Oxford, and therefore 
Cecil's own niece. 

In September, 1592, Cecil was sent to Dart- 
mouth as Commissioner to apportion the spoil 
brought home in the " Great Carrack," the Madre 
de Dios, captured by Sir John Borough in Raleigh's 
ship, the Roebuck. The excitement caused by the 
news of the capture, " the most brilliant feat of 
privateering ever accomplished by Englishmen," 
was intense, and the value of the cargo, though 
not so great as at first estimated, proved to be 
upwards of £141,000, equivalent to three-quarters 
of a million in our present currency. Sir Robert 

' September i8th, 1592 (Lodge's Illustrations, III. 146). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 151 

reached Exeter on September 19th, and at once 
found it necessary to take active steps to prevent 
embezzlement and waste. " Whomsoever I met 
by the way," he writes to Burghley, " within 
seven miles, that either had any thing in cloak- 
bag or in mail which did but smell of the prizes, 
either at Dartmouth or Plymouth (for I assure 
your Lordship, I could smell them almost, such 
hath been the spoils of amber and musk amongst 
them), I did, though he had little about him, 
return him with me to the town of Exeter ; where 
I stayed any that should carry news to Dartmouth 
and Plymouth, at the gates of the town. I com- 
pelled them also to tell me where any trunks or 
mails were. And I, by this inquisition, finding 
the people stubborn till I had committed two 
innkeepers to prison — which example would have 
won the Queen £20,000 a week past — I have lit 
upon a Londoner's [? agent], in whose house we 
have found a bag of seed pearls." He further 
ordered every bag or mail coming from the west 
to be searched, and made an impression on the 
" Mayor and the rest " by his '' rough dealing " 
with them. " My Lord," he continues, " there 
never was such spoil ! . . . My sending down 
hath made many stagger. Fouler ways, 
desperater ways, nor more obstinate people, did 
I never meet with."^ 

Soon after he came to Dartmouth, Raleigh 
arrived, having been joined with him in the 
Commission. Raleigh was at this time in disgrace, 

1 Cal. S. P. Dom., September 19th, 1592. 



152 THE CECILS 

owing to the discovery of his liaison with EHzabeth 
Throckmorton (who became his wife), and had 
consequently had to give up the command of the 
expedition to Frobisher. But when his crews 
returned and heard that he was in prison, their 
wrath was unbounded, and it became necessary 
to send him down to pacify them. Cecil notes 
that " his poor servants to the number of a 
hundred and forty goodly men, and all the 
mariners came to him with such shouts and joy, 
as I never saw a man more troubled to quiet 
them in his life. . . . Whensoever he is saluted 
with congratulations for liberty, he doth answer, 
* No ; I am still the Queen of England's poor 
captive.' I wished him to conceal it, because 
here it doth diminish his credit, which I do vow 
to you before God is greater amongst the mariners 
than I thought for."^ 

The following draft of a letter written by Sir 
Robert from Dartmouth to the Queen is endorsed 
by Burghley, and therefore was presumably 
approved by him. All one can say of it is, that 
though Elizabeth may have been pleased with 
such an effusion, written in the flamboyant style 
then current, neither Burghley himself nor Sir 
Thomas Cecil would ever have approached her 
Majesty in such terms : — 

" It is the property of the Creator, to accept the labour 
of men, from the abundance of their affection, without 
measure of their abilities, to perform any action acceptable 
to divine worthiness. Herein I am most blessed that I 

^ To Sir Thomas Heneage (Edwards, I. 154). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 153 

am a vassal to His celestial creature, who pleaseth out of 
angelic grace, to pardon and allow my careful and zealous 
desires. My services are attended with envy, I must be 
offensive to the multitude, and to others that may be 
revengeful, who also have many and great friends. I can 
please none because I thirst only to please one, and malice 
is no less wakeful in itself than fearful to others, were not 
my trust in her divine justice which never suffereth her 
creatures to complain. The comfort I receive of those 
sacred lines are best expressed in silence, but I have 
written them anew in my heart, and adjoined them unto 
the rest of my admiring thoughts, which always travailing 
from wonder to wonder spend themselves in contempla- 
tion, being absent and present in reading secretly the 
story of marvels in that more than human perfection. I 
hope the end of this my travail shall be accepted with no 
less than the beginning is vouchsafed, for I have no other 
purpose of living, but to witness what I would perform if 
I had power. If I could do more than any man it were 
less than nothing balanced with my desires ; if I could do 
as much as all the world, it were neither praise nor thanks 
worthy in respect of the duty I owe and the princess 
whom I serve." ^ 

To Cecil's character and abilities at this time 
Bacon has borne eloquent witness. Replying to 
a scurrilous pamphlet published in 1592, in which 
Burghley was charged with bringing into the 
Council his second son, " who had neither wit nor 
experience," he says : — 

"It is confessed by all men that know the gentleman 
that he hath one of the rarest and most excellent wits of 
England ; with a singular delivery and application of the 
same, whether it be to use a continued speech, or to 

1 Sept. 29th, 1592 {Hatfield MSS., IV. 632). 



154 THE CECILS 

negotiate, or to couch in writing, or to make report, or 
discreetly to consider of the circumstances and aptly to 
draw things to a point ; and all this joined with a very 
good nature, and a great respect to all men, as is daily 
more and more revealed. And for his experience, it is 
easy to think that his training and helps hath made it 
already such as many that have served long prentishood 
for it have not attained the like. So as if it be true that 
qui beneficium digno dat omnes ohligat, not his father only 
but the State is bound unto her Majesty for the choice and 
employment of so sufficient and worthy a gentleman." ^ 

One has to remember that Bacon was a 
candidate for office, and the spirit of the age 
encouraged more outspoken flattery of those in 
power than would be possible nowadays. Making 
every allowance for Bacon's self-seeking, however, 
such a description remains a high tribute to 
Sir Robert's true merit. And though Bacon was 
his first cousin, yet he and his elder brother, 
Anthony, had already thrown in their lot with 
Essex, with whose party Cecil's rapid rise to a 
position of influence brought him into active 
opposition. The Bacons had joined Essex, 
chiefly from admiration of that fascinating person 
and a belief that he was the coming man, but 
partly also out of jealousy of Cecil, by whom they 
considered themselves slighted. Three years 
before, a correspondent of Anthony Bacon wrote, 
" There never was in Court such emulation, 
such envy, such backbiting, as is now at this 
time," and as time went on, and old Burghley's 

1 " Observations on a libel, etc." (Spedding's Life and Letters of 
Bacon, I. 206). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 155 

influence waned, the bitterness between the two 
factions increased. 

Matters were brought to a pitch in 1594, by 
the efforts of Essex to obtain the office of Attorney- 
General for Francis Bacon, to which the Queen 
would not consent. The Cecils evidently thought 
that Bacon, an untried man, had no chance of 
receiving so high a post, for which Coke, a man 
with a great reputation and nine years Bacon's 
senior, had far higher claims. They therefore 
considered it injudicious to apply for it. Essex, 
with his usual impetuosity and indiscretion, 
spoilt whatever chance Bacon might have had 
by urging his claims on the Queen in season and 
out of season. On one occasion Sir Robert 
expressed his surprise that he " should go about 
to spend his strength in so unlikely or impossible 
a matter," and added, " If at least your lordship 
had spoken of the Solicitorship that might be of 
easier digestion to her Majesty." " Digest me 
no digesting," burst out the Earl, " for the 
Attorneyship is that I must have for Francis 
Bacon ; and in that will I spend all my uttermost 
credit, friendship and authority against whom- 
soever." The Attorney-Generalship was not filled 
up for a year (April, 1594), but when it was finally 
decided in favour of Coke, the Cecils both backed 
Bacon warmly for the Solicitorship. In reply to 
a letter in which Bacon asks him to use his 
influence, and that of his father in his favour. 
Sir Robert says, " I protest I suffer with you 
in mind that you are thus yet gravelled ; but 



156 THE CECILS 

time will founder all your competitors and set 
you on your feet, or else I have little under- 
standing."^ The Queen, however, was still angry 
with Bacon on account of a speech he had made in 
Parliament in opposition to the Subsidies Bill 
in the previous year, and, though she kept the 
office of Solicitor - General open for eighteen 
months, she finally gave it to Serjeant Fleming. 
Bacon was always suspicious of Sir Robert, and 
was led to believe that he had " wrought under- 
hand " against him, though he afterwards con- 
fessed he was wrong. Writing to Lord Burghley 
in March, 1595, he says : " If I did show myself 
too credulous to idle hearsays in regard of my 
right honourable kinsman and good friend. Sir 
Robert Cecil (whose good nature will well answer 
my honest liberty), your lordship will impute it 
to the complexion of a suitor and of a tired, 
sea-sick suitor, and not to mine own inclination." ^ 
The venom of the Bacons, and especially of 
the elder brother, against Sir Robert, was well 
shown at an interview which Anthony had 
with his aunt. Lady Russell, in September, 1596, 
and of which he sent a long account to Essex.^ 
Lady Russell was endeavouring, without any 
success, to promote peace between Bacon and 
the Cecils. After complaining that Burghley was 
" so loth, yea, so backward," to advance his 
nephews, Anthony said that Sir Robert, " whether 

' May, 1594 (Spedding, I. 296). 

^ Spedding, I. 358. See also Bacon's letter to Sir R. Cecil {ibid., 355). 

^ Birch, Memoirs of the Reign oj Queen Elizabeth, II. 136. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 157 

with his lordship's privity, God knows," had 
denounced a deadly feud " to an ancient lady, my 
mother and his aunt, swearing that he held me 
for his mortal enemy, and would make me feel 
it when he could." " Ah, vile wretched urchin," 
said Lady Russell ; " is it possible ? " " Whether 
it be true or no, madam," answered Bacon, " I 
refer to my mother, who marvelled when she told 
me of it that I did but laugh at it, alleging and 
expounding to her ladyship a Gascon proverb, 
which was, ' Brane d'asne ne monte pas al ciel.' " 
" By God," replied Lady Russell ; " but he is no 
ass." " Let him go for a mule then," rejoined 
Bacon, " the most mischievous beast that is." 
Such is Anthony's version of the interview, and 
perhaps the best comment on it is the fact that 
Lady Russell's strong affection for Sir Robert is 
well known ; only three months before she had 
written to him thanking God " for the heavenly 
breath proceeding from a saint so sweet and 
gracious to me as you write." ^ 

Sir Robert had now been made Secretary, and 
Anthony declares that he " finds the Secretaryship 
a harder province to govern than he looked for, 
and inwardly beginneth to be a weary of it, as 
outwardly the world is already of him."^ But 
a few weeks later he informs his mother that 
Secretary Cecil " had of late professed very 
seriously an absolute amnesty and oblivion of all 
misconceits passed, with earnest protestation, 

» June 15th, 1596 [Hatfield MSS., VII. 215). 

2 Letter to Dr. Hawkins, December nth, 1596 (Birch, II. 227). 



158 THE CECILS 

that to the Queen, to his father, or of himself, he 
would be glad and ready to do Mr. Bacon any 
kind office if the latter would make proof of 
him." 

All this is very easy to understand, and no 
part of his relations with the Bacons redounds 
in any degree to the discredit of Sir Robert. He 
did all he could for them, and never allowed his 
attitude towards them to be affected by their 
injustice and rancour. " He had too much good 
sense, too much self-control and moderation, to 
be moved by the perpetual calumnies to which he 
was exposed, wisely remarking : ' He that will 
not be patient of slander must procure himself 
a chair out of this world's circle.' " ^ 

An examination of his relations with Essex 
produces still greater testimony to his kindness 
of heart and forbearance. It is often said that 
he and his future rival were brought up together 
at Hatfield. But this is an exaggeration, as 
Essex was not a member of Burghley's household 
for more than a few months. It is certain that 
Cecil was only too willing to be friendly with him, 
but Essex, in spite of his extraordinary influence 
at Court, felt that Sir Robert stood in the way of 
his ambitions. The two men were, in fact, 
antagonistic in every way. The contrast between 
them has been well brought out by John Bruce. ^ 

" Essex was what in those days was termed ' full of 

1 Brewer, English Stvidies, p. 131. 

2 In his Introduction to the Correspondence of King Jafnes VI. 
of Scotland with Sir R. Cecil, &c." (Camden Society, 1861). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 159 

humours/ wayward, uncertain, impatient, fantastic, 

capricious ; acting by fits and starts, upon impulses and 

prejudices ; but ever with a dash and brilliancy that were 

nearly allied to genius. Sir Robert Cecil was his very 

contrary in all these respects. Brought up at the feet of 

his pre-eminent father, he acquired, perhaps inherited, 

the highest official qualities ; a calm, quiet, patient 

thoughtfulness, the power of mastering and applying 

details however intricate ; diligence that was never 

weary, patience that could not be exhausted, temper that 

was seldom ruffied, and a habit of comparing and sifting 

and weighing and balancing, which generally led him to 

right conclusions. Essex was generous in the highest 

degree, a patron of literature, and of all noble and gentle 

arts, and ever ready to take the lead in kind and liberal 

deeds ; he was at the same time impetuous, fiery, 

vehement, — a man of action ; courageous, daring, and 

more than anything delighted with military command, 

and with the eclat and brilliancy of a soldier's life. Cecil 

was a man of thought and law and peace, neither a soldier 

himself nor looking upon war in any shape save as a 

necessity to be deplored. Consciousness of his own 

physical defects kept the one man comparatively humble : 

consciousness of his own power of dazzling and attracting 

people, and of attaching them to himself, puffed up the 

other, and led him into continual extravagances." 

Essex was the leader of all the young spirits who 
longed for adventure and for active measures 
against Spain, while the policy of the Cecils was, 
above all things, to avoid war. Thus Essex found 
his rash schemes constantly opposed and balked, 
and in his turn he neglected no opportunity of 
thwarting his adversaries. On the death of Wal- 
singham, in 1590, in order to prevent Cecil from 



i6o THE CECILS 

being made Secretary, he first tried to have 
Davison restored to the office, and afterwards he 
urged the claims of Sir Thomas Bodley, whose 
own account of the matter has a pecuhar interest, 
as it gives the reasons which induced him to 
retire from pubhc hfe, and devote himself to the 
formation of the library which bears his name. 
He states that Lord Burghley had always been 
his friend, and had told the Queen that no man 
was so fit for the office of Secretary as himself, 
and adds that Sir Robert afterwards told him 
that " when his father first intended to advance 
him to that place, his purpose was withall to make 
me his colleague." When he returned from the 
United Provinces in 1597, Essex, 

"... who sought by all devices to divert the 
Queen's love and liking both from the father and the son 
(but from the son in special) to withdraw my affection 
from the one and the other, and to win me altogether to 
depend upon himself, did so often take occasion to enter- 
tain the Queen with some prodigal speeches of my 
sufficiency for a Secretary, which were ever accompanied 
with words of disgrace against the present Lord Treasurer 
[Sir Robert], as neither she herself, of whose favour before 
I was thoroughly assured, took any great pleasure to 
prefer me the sooner . . . and both the Lord Burghley 
and his son waxed jealous of my courses, as if underhand I 
had been induced by the cunning and kindness of the Earl 
of Essex, to oppose myself against their dealings. And 
though in very truth they had no solid ground at all of the 
least alteration in my disposition towards either of them 
both . . . yet the now Lord Treasurer, upon occasion of 
some talk, that I have since had with him, of the Earl and 
his actions, hath freely confessed of his own accord unto 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY i6i 

me that his daily provocations were so bitter and sharp 
against him, and his comparisons so odious, when he put 
us in a balance, as he thought thereupon he had very 
great reason to use his best means, to put any man out of 
hope of raising his fortune, whom the Earl with such 
violence, to his extreme prejudice, had endeavoured to 
dignify." 

Bodley, considering " how very untov^^ardly 
these two Councillors were affected unto me," 
how ill it became him to be known as a partisan, 
and how well he was able to live for the " short 
time of further life," if he could be content with 
a " competent livelihood," resolved to take fare- 
well of State employments, and to " set up his 
staff at the Library door in Oxford."^ The 
Bodleian thus owes its foundation ultimately to 
the jealous arrogance of the Earl of Essex. 

The Cecils, of course, opposed Essex in the 
matter of the Cadiz expedition of 1596. " This 
day," writes the Earl to Anthony Bacon, " I was 
more braved by your little cousin than ever I 
was by any man in my life. But I am not now 
nor was, angry, which is all the advantage I 
have of him." ^ Yet, when it was once decided 
upon. Sir Robert gave him all the help in his 
power. In the same way he provided for all 
his needs in the " Islands Voyage " of 1597, and 
in his Irish campaign two years later, so much so 
that Essex was led to exclaim, " You heap coals 

^ Life of Sir Thomas Bodley written by Himself. Some years after- 
wards (1604) Cecil tried to induce Bodley to be his associate in the 
Secretary's office, but he refused. 

2 September 8th, 1596 (Birch, II. 131). 

C. M 



i62 THE CECILS 

of kindness." Indeed, it has been suggested that 
Cecil was actuated by the idea of giving Essex 
rope to hang himself, feeling sure that he would 
come to grief if given a good chance. But, as 
Brewer points out, it is more natural and probable 
to accept Sir Robert's own explanation, given in a 
letter to James after Essex had charged him with 
upholding the Spanish claim to the succession : — 

" If I could have contracted such a friendship with 
Essex, as could have given me security that his thoughts 
and mine should have been no further distant than the 
disproportion of our fortunes, I should condemn my 
judgment to have willingly intruded myself into such an 
opposition. For who know not, that have lived in Israel, 
that such were the mutual affections in our tender years, 
and so many reciprocal benefits interchanged in our grow- 
ing fortunes, as besides the rules of my own poor discre- 
tion, which taught me how perilous it was for Secretary 
Cecil to have a bitter feud with an Earl Marshal of England, 
a favourite, a nobleman of eminent parts, and a councillor, 
all things else in the composition of my mind did still 
concur on my part to make me desirous of his favour." ^ 

At the time of Essex's disgrace, after his return 
from Ireland, Cecil specially befriended him, and 
did all he could to mitigate the consequences of 
his folly. He prevailed on the Queen not to 
commit him to the Tower, but to place him under 
the charge of the Lord Keeper, Sir Thomas 
Egerton, and he further obtained permission for 
his wife to visit him. " No time or fortune," 
writes the Countess, " shall ever extinguish in my 

1 Correspondence of King James VI. of Scotland with Sir R. Cecil, S'C, 
p. 6. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 163 

Lord and me a thankful memory and due acknow- 
ledgment of so undeserved a benefit from him 
whom this friendly favour assures me will never 
be proved my Lord's malicious enemy," ^ 

" It was Cecil's speech in the Star Chamber, 
when the conduct of the Earl was called in 
question, that was marked with a greater tone of 
moderation than that of any other of the judges. 
When, to avoid being tried in the Chamber, the 
Earl, at his own request, was brought before a 
Commission, though Cecil condemned him for 
abandoning his post contrary to the Queen's 
command, he mitigated the severity of his remarks 
by giving Essex credit for his services in Ireland. 
His conduct on this and other occasions, when 
the Earl was concerned, won for him general 
approbation. ' Sir Robert Cecil,' says a writer 
of the time, by no means his indiscriminate 
admirer,^ ' is highly commended for his wise and 
temperate proceeding in this matter, showing no 
gall, though perhaps he had been galled, if not 
by the Earl, by some of his dependants. By 
employing his credit with her Majesty in behalf 
of the Earl, he has gained great credit, both at 
home and abroad.' "^ 

It was certainly mainly owing to Cecil that 
Essex was let off so lightly, yet his followers 
assailed Sir Robert with every species of insult. 
" They posted lampoons on his doors in Salisbury 

1 December 12th, 1599 [Hatfield MSS., IX. 411). 
"^ John Petit, June 14th, 1600 {Cal. S. P. Dom.). 
^ Brewer, p. 140. 

M 2 



i64 THE CECILS 

Street and elsewhere, ' Here lieth the toad at 
Court, and here heth the toad at London.' They 
attributed to him ' the injustice,' as they were 
pleased to call it, of keeping Essex in prison. They 
vilified his person in taverns and eating-houses, 
observing ' that it was an unwholesome thing to 
meet a man in the morning who had a wry neck, 
a crooked back, and a splay foot.' So powerful 
was the influence of the Earl, and so audacious 
were his followers, that none dared to contradict 
them." ^ It must be remembered that Essex was 
the popular favourite, and that the people were 
quite in the dark as to the nature of his offence. 
Then came the fiasco of the Essex rebellion. 
One of the Earl's cries was that " the Crown of 
England was offered to be sold to the Infanta," 
and at his trial he tried to justify himself by saying 
that Cecil had maintained to one of his fellow- 
councillors that the title of the Infanta to the 
Crown was as good as any other. Whereupon a 
dramatic scene occurred. " Upon this his allega- 
tion, Mr. Secretary, standing out of sight in a 
private place, only to hear (being much moved 
with so false and foul an accusation), came 
suddenly forth and made humble request to the 
Lord Steward that he might have the favour to 
answer for himself." This being granted, Cecil 
made an eloquent speech in his own defence, 
and finally urged that the name of Essex's 
informant might be given. This Essex refused, 
but stated that the Earl of Southampton had also 

1 Brewer, p. 140. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 165 

heard the same report. " Whereupon Cecil 
adjured the Earl of Southampton by all former 
friendship (which had been, indeed, very great 
between them) that he would declare the person ; 
which he did presently, and said it was Mr. Comp- 
troller (Sir Wilham Knollys)." At Cecil's request 
Knollys was sent for, and being questioned, 
stated that about two years before, during a 
casual conversation, " Mr. Secretary told him 
that one, Doleman, had maintained in a book 
(not long since printed) that the Infanta of Spain 
had a good title to the Crown of England : which 
was all that ever he heard Mr. Secretary speak o± 
that matter." ^ This was the whole foundation 
of the story, and it turned out that Doleman had 
actually dedicated his book to Essex. The Earl 
now apologised for his misunderstandings, where- 
upon Cecil exclaimed : " Your misunderstanding 
arose from your opposition to peace. It was 
your ambition that every military man should 
look up to you as his patron, and hence you sought 
to represent me and the councillors, who wished 
to put an end to the war, as the pensioners of 
Spain. I confess I have said," he continued, " that 
the King of Spain is a competitor of the Crown of 
England, and that the King of Scots is a com- 
petitor, and my Lord of Essex, I have said, is 
a competitor ; for he would depose the Queen, 
and call a Parliament, and so be King himself ; 
but as to my affection to advance the Spanish 

1 Official " Declaration of the Treasons, &c.," printed by Spedding, 
II. 279 — 281. 



i66 THE CECILS 

title to England, I am so far from it that my 
mind is astonished to think of it, and I pray to 
God to consume me where I stand if I hate not 
the Spaniard as much as any man living." 

We have anticipated and must return. In 
1589 Cecil had married Elizabeth Brooke, sister 
of the notorious Lord Cobham, and of George 
Brooke. They had three children, a boy, William, 
afterwards second Earl of Salisbury, and two 
daughters, Frances, who married Henry Clifford, 
Earl of Cumberland, and Catherine, who died in 
infancy. Lady Cecil died in January, 1597, and 
the occasion drew forth several letters of affection 
and sympathy. That from Sir Walter Raleigh 
is interesting, not only intrinsically, but also, as 
has been pointed out before, because indirectly it 
bears witness to the character of the recipient. 
" No one who knew Robert Cecil so intimately 
as Raleigh did, would have written thus, save 
under the conviction that the man to whom he 
was giving such consolation as he then had to 
give had loved truly and would grieve deeply." ^ 
Part of this letter must be quoted : — 

" Sir, because I know not how you dispose of yourself, 
I forbear to visit you, preferring your pleasing before mine 
own desire. I had rather be with you now than at any 
other time ; if I could thereby either take off from you 
the burden of your sorrows or lay the greatest part thereof 
on mine own heart. In the meantime, I would put you 
in mind of this, that you should not overshadow your 
wisdom with passion, but look aright unto things as they 
are. There is no man sorry for death itself, but only for 

* Edwards, Life of Raleigh, II. 157, 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 167 

the time of death ; everyone knowing that it is a bond 
never forfeited to God. If then we know the same to be 
certain and inevitable, we ought withal to take the time 
of his arrival in as good part as the knowledge, and not 
to lament at the instant of every seeming adversity ; 
which we are assured have been on their way towards us 
from the beginning. It appertaineth to every man of a 
wise and worthy spirit to draw together into suffrance 
the unknown future to the known present ; looking no less 
with the eyes of the mind than with those of the body, the 
one beholding afar off and the other at hand, that those 
things of this world in which we live be not strange unto 
us when they approach, as to feebleness which is moved 
with novelties, but that like true men participating 
immortality and know [ing] our destinies to be of God, 
we should then make our estates and wishes, our fortunes 
and desires all one. It is true that you have lost a good 
and virtuous wife and myself an honourable friend and 
kinswoman ; but there was a time when she was unknown 
to you, for whom you then lamented not. She is now no 
more yours, nor of your acquaintance, but immortal, and 
not needing and knowing your love and sorrow. There- 
fore you shall but grieve for that which now is, as then it 
was when not yours : only bettered by the difference in 
this, that she hath past the wearisome journey of this 

dark world, and hath possession of her inheritance 

" Yours beyond ever the power of words to utter, 

" W. Ralegh." ^ 

Another friend who wrote in a similar strain of 
pious exhortation and affection was Lord Howard 
of Ef&ngham, the Lord Admiral. 

" The Lord's will must be fulfilled " he says, " and she 
was too virtuous and good to live in so wretched a world 

^ January 24th, 1597 {Hatfield MSS., VII. 35). At this time the 
friendship between Cecil and Raleigh was close, Sir Walter being, of 
course, strongly opposed to Essex. 



i68 THE CECILS 

and you that hath an extraordinary judgment by His 
gifts that doth all must with that wisdom seek now to 
master your good and kind nature and to think that 
sorrow nor anything else can now redeem it. And as she 
is now most assured happier than all we that live in this 
' pudeled ' and troubled world, so do I assure you, as long 
as God shall spare me life in it, there shall not be any 
tread on the earth that shall love you better than my 
poor self ; and I vow it to God I think none doth or can 
do so much as I do." ^ 

But it v^as long before the Secretary could 
rouse himself from his grief, and in June his aunt, 
Lady Russell, found it necessary to give him a 
characteristic exhortation : — 

" If you be so without comfort of worldly delight as you 
seem, it is most ill to the health of your both body and 
soul ; I speak by experience, and know too well that to 
be true which I say ; and, therefore, both am sorry to 
hear it, and beseech the God of all consolation and 
comfort to remedy it, with giving you a contrary mind. 
Else will you find the Daemonius meridianus to creep so 
far into your heart, with his variety of virtues, seeming 
good to be yielded to (melancholy I mean) as in the end 
will shorten life by cumbrous conceits and sickness : and 
when it is rooted so as with peevish persuasions of good 
thereby and solitary ejaculations, it will bring forth the 
fruit of stupidity, forgetfulness of your natural disposition 
of sweet and apt speeches, fit for your place : and instead 
thereof breed and make you a surly, sharp, sour plum, 
no better than in truth a very melancholy mole and a 
misanthropos hateful to God and man ; and only with 
persuasions seeming holy, wise and good." ^ 

Although Cecil had been transacting the 

1 January 25th, 1597 {Hatfield MSS., VII. 39). 

2 Ibid., VII. 281. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 169 

business of Secretary for several years, he was 
not actually appointed to the office until 1596, 
during the absence of Essex on the Cadiz 
expedition. In the following year he was made 
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position 
which he resigned when he succeeded to the 
Mastership of the Court of Wards after his father's 
death. In February, 1598, he was sent on an 
embassy to France, the object of which was to 
prevent Henry IV. from contracting an alliance 
with Spain. He was loth to go, and extracted 
a promise from Essex that he would do nothing 
to his prejudice during his absence. Among the 
many letters of congratulation he received on 
this occasion one, from Dr. Mount, must have 
given him great satisfaction, for he announced 
that he was sending him " two glasses of compound 
distilled water, the one of cinnamon, the other 
of sage, both comfortable if at any time in your 
travel you shall find yourself in health not well 
affected, one spoonful or two at one time, with 
half so much sugar." ^ 

His mission was successful, but while he was in 
France he received news of his father's illness and 
hurried home, though Lord Burghley lived till 
the following August. During this time, and still 
more after his death, Sir Robert must have been 
overwhelmed with work. " In your industry," 
writes Sir Charles Danvers, " you seem to have 
drawn the offices of all other men into your own 

1 Hatfield MSS.. VIII. 38. 



170 THE CECILS 

hands." ^ Certainly the correspondence at Hat- 
field shows that everybody with any grievance, 
public or private, thought Cecil the right man to 
apply to for relief. A typical appeal is presented 
in the following letter from a Mrs. Anne William- 
son : — ^ 

" I lived happily with my husband for twelve years, 
until for causes to me unknown he was committed to the 
Tower. Now, being released from thence, he utterly 
rejects my company, I have tried the mediation of 
friends without avail. He yields me no relief, although 
at his request I sold and conveyed away my jointure, 
without assurance of other living. Wherefore, forcedly 
and with shame, I have presumed to trouble your Honour, 
to whom the reformation of such demeanours doth 
appertain." 

1 June 2oth, 1598 (Cal. S. P. Dom.). 

2 November 6th, 1598 {Hatfield MSS., VIII. 430). 



CHAPTER IX 

ROBERT CECIL, FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 

(contimied) 

On the death of Essex (February, 1601) the 
power and influence of Sir Robert were largely 
enhanced. While Essex lived, he would tolerate 
no division of service. Those who followed him, 
must give no allegiance to Cecil. " As for your 
Honour," wrote Sir F. Gorges after Essex's 
death, " the opposition was so apparent between 
you two as there was no possibility for me to 
* interest ' myself in you without abjuring of 
him, and so must have manifested my dishonest 
humour and fickle disposition. ... I vow to God 
I did endeavour, by what means I was able, the 
reconciliation of your Honour and him ; but he 
answered me that he would receive no good from 
you or by your means. The truth of this his 
soul can testify." ^ But when Essex was dead, 
his followers soon transferred their allegiance to 
his former rival. 

It was at this time that Cecil entered upon the 
" secret correspondence " with King James of 
Scotland, which had so great an influence, not 
only on his own fortunes, but on the future of 

1 April 27th, 1601 (Hatfield MSS., XI. 179 ; and see Introduction to 
that volume). 



172 THE CECILS 

England. Hitherto, misled by the slanders of 
Essex, with whom he had been in correspondence 
for some time, James had looked upon Sir Robert 
as an adherent of the Spanish cause. Moreover, 
he could not forget the death of his mother, for 
which he considered Cecil's father responsible. 
Light is thrown upon this point, as well as on the 
essential loyalty of Cecil, by the following letter 
written by the Master of Gray to James, in 
December, 1600.^ 

" Of one thing I am sorry, that your Majesty should 
speak so hardly of Mr. Secretary Cecil, for that you allege 
my Lord his father ' cuttit ' your mother's throat. I am 
assured your Majesty knoweth that I know more in that 
nor any Scottish or English living, the Queen excepted, 
and that for I do remember your Majesty of a note I gave 
you in that matter ; that the Earl of Leicester or Sir 
Francis Walsingham were only the cutters of her throat, 
and inducers of Davison to do as he did. I take on my 
conscience it was far from the Queen or his father's mind 
that she should die when she died, as I have yet some 
witnessing in the world. And, Sir, I assure you this, that 
if your Majesty shall fall again in good course with the 
Queen, Mr. Secretary will prove as good a friend as you 
have in all England. Let them inform you of him as they 
please, but think never to have him otherways, for he has 
sworn to me that if he knew to be the greatest subject that 
England ever bred, he shall never serve any other prince 
after the Queen. And I think if it were not for love and 
obligation, he would never endure the excess trouble he 
has presently, nor almost is it possible for him to serve so 
' penibly,' for albeit he has a very well composed mind, 

' Hatfield MSS., X. 414. See also another letter in very similar 
terms, June 13th, 1602 {ibid., XII. 18). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 173 

yet the ability of the body is so discrepant that it cannot 
correspond the capacity of the mind." 

Probably the incident already recorded at the 
Essex trial convinced the King that he had been 
mistaken as to Cecil's opinions with regard to 
Spain. The Master of Gray, no doubt, testified 
to his innocence in this matter also, for Sir Robert 
writes to him : ^ " I do thank you for the assump- 
tion in my behalf that I was never so foul nor so 
foolish as to traffic with the Spaniards, either by 
your means or by any earthly creature. God 
hath forgiven his soul, I hope, who was the author 
of that poor invention." James, at any rate, made 
overtures to Cecil through his ambassadors, and 
the " secret correspondence " was the result. 
Sir Robert's motives in this matter are beyond 
suspicion. The Queen was growing old and 
infirm, and it was essential that all arrangements 
with regard to the succession should be perfected 
before her death. Yet it was a subject on which 
no public or official action could be taken, since 
the Queen refused to discuss it. By coming to 
an understanding with James, Cecil ensured his 
peaceful succession, and saved the country from 
the dangers arising from rival claims, including 
the horrible possibility of the Papists and the 
Spanish faction winning the day. He was also 
able to impress on James the necessity of avoiding 
any premature action, and to give him much 
sound advice. 

It was obviously necessary to keep this corre- 

1 July 9th, 1601 [Hatfield MSS., XI. 272). 



174 THE CECILS 

spondence private, lest the Queen's suspicions 
should be aroused, but on one occasion the secret 
nearly leaked out. The story is told by Sir 
Henry Wotton.^ 

" The Queen having for a good while not heard anything 
from Scotland, and being thirsty of news, it fell out that her 
Majesty, going to take the air towards the Heath (the 
Court being then at Greenwich) , and Master Secretary Cecil 
then attending her, a post came crossing by and blew his 
horn. The Queen, out of curiosity, asked him from 
whence the despatch came, and being answered ' From 
Scotland,' she stops the coach and calleth for the packet. 
The Secretary, though he knew there were in it some letters 
from his correspondents, which to discover were as so 
many serpents, yet made more show of diligence than of 
doubt to obey, and asks some one that stood by (forsooth 
in great haste), for a knife to cut up the packet (for other- 
wise he might have awaked a little apprehension) ; but 
in the meantime approaching with the packet in his hand, 
at a pretty distance from the Queen, he telleth her it 
looked and smelt ill-favouredly, coming out of a filthy 
budget, and that it should be fit first to open and air it, 
because he knew she was averse from ill scents. And so, 
being dismissed home, he got leisure by this seasonable 
shift, to sever what he would not have seen." 

The correspondence began between March and 
June, 1601, and seven letters exist from James to 
Cecil, and six from Cecil to James,^ besides others 
through intermediaries. Cecil's first letter is of 
special importance, as it " contains an explanation 
of his past conduct, a vindication of the steps 

' Reliq. WoUon , ed. 1672, p. 169. Quoted by Bruce, p. xxxix. 
^ There is a mistake in the numbering by Bruce.. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 175 

taken by him in opening up this secret communi- 
cation, a full assurance of the state of the Queen's 
mind, and plain advice with respect to James's 
future conduct." He protests his absolute loyalty 
to the Queen. 

" I do herein truly and religiously profess before God, 
that if I could accuse myself to have once imagined a 
thought which could amount to a grain of error towards 
my dear and precious Sovereign, or could have discerned 
(by the overtures of your ministers) that you had enter- 
tained an opinion or desire to draw me one point from my 
individual centre, I should wish with all my heart that all 
I have done or shall do, might be converted to my own 
perdition." 

But when he heard of the " foul impressions " 
which James continued to receive concerning him, 
he found it necessary 

" to pluck up quickly by the roots those gross inventions 
of my conspiracies. . . . For when I perceived that the 
practices which were used to disgrace me, must conse- 
quently have settled an apprehension in you of an aliena- 
tion of heart in her Majesty towards you, which must have 
mortised an opinion in your mind, that she must needs be 
inclined (if not resolved) to cut off the natural branch and 
graft upon some wild stock, seeing those that held the 
nearest place about her were described to be so full of 
pernicious practices against your Majesty, I did think it 
my duty to remove that inference, by that occasion which 
was offered me upon your Ambassadors being here, 
though I assure myself, it being known would prejudice 
me in her Majesty's judgment, of whom that language 
which would be tunable in other princes' ears would jar in 
hers, whose creature I am. But, Sir, I know it holdeth so 
just proportion, even with strictest loyalty and soundest 



176 THE CECILS 

reason, for faithful ministers to conceal sometime both 
thought and action from princes, when they are persuaded 
it is for their own greater service, as albeit I did observe 
the temperature of your mind (in all your courses) to be 
such as gave me great hopes that you would do always 
like yourself, yet I was still jealous, lest some such cause- 
less despair of the Queen's just intentions might be 
wrought into you, as might make you (though happily not 
dissolve the main bond of honour and amity) plunge your- 
self unawares into some such actions, as might engage all 
honest men, out of present duty, to oppose themselves so 
far against you, as they would stand in doubt hereafter 
what you would do, in the future, towards those which 
should so lately have offended you. Wherein I will only 
for the present lay down this position, which I know I can 
justly maintain. That it is and will be, in no man's power 
on earth, so much as your own, to he faber fortunae tuae." 

He further counsels James as to his future 
conduct towards the Queen, " to whose sex and 
quality nothing is so improper as either needless 
expostulations or overmuch curiosity in her own 
actions." 

In a later letter Cecil prophesies that " when 
that day (so grievous to us) shall happen, which 
is the tribute of all mortal creatures, your ship 
shall be steered into the right harbour, without 
cross of wave or tide that shall be able to turn 
over a cock-boat." This prediction was fulfilled. 
Elizabeth died in the early morning of March 24th, 
1603. Within three hours, the Council had met 
and agreed to the proclamation of James's 
accession, which Cecil had drawn up in readiness. 
" At ten o'clock the ceremony of proclamation 




ROBERT, FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY, K.G. 



Gheeraedts 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 177 

was commenced at Whitehall Gate, at eleven it 
was repeated at the Cross in Cheapside, and that 
same night printed copies of the proclamation 
were transmitted to the new Sovereign. Before 
he received them, the voice of the nation had 
fully ratified the act of the Council ; the will of 
Henry VI 1 1, had been set aside ; all questions 
respecting inheritable blood had been passed 
over ; James I. was in full possession, and the 
act of statesmanship of Sir Robert Cecil was 
complete." ^ 

He soon reaped his reward. " James's first 
thought on receiving intelligence of the Queen's 
death, was to express his thanks to Cecil for his 
careful attention to his interests. ' How happy 
I think myself,' he wrote, ' by the conquest of so 
faithful and so wise a counsellor, I reserve it to 
be expressed out of my own mouth unto you.' 
The confidence which James thus bestowed was 
never withdrawn as long as Cecil lived." ^ He 
also gained a full share of those honours of which 
Elizabeth was so chary. On his way to London, 
James spent ten days at Theobalds, and took the 
opportunity to raise his host to the peerage, with 
the title of Baron Cecil of Essendon (May 13th, 
1603). In August, 1604, he was created Viscount 
Cranborne,^ and in May, 1605, Earl of Salisbury. 
He obtained the Garter in 1606. 

1 Bruce, Introduction, p. liv. 

2 Gardiner, History of England, I. 91. 

^ The manor of Cranborne was not actually or formally granted to 
him till 161 1, but he began the restoration and enlargement of the 
Manor House some years before that date. 

C. N 



178 THE CECILS 

But in spite of these marks of the King's 
appreciation, he cannot have been a happy man. 
In Ehzabeth he had lost his best friend, the very 
centre of his Hfe, and though he worked loyally 
for James, he can never have been in full sympathy 
with his aims and methods. When congratulated 
on not being obliged to speak to the King kneeling, 
as he was used to do to Elizabeth, he replied 
" I wish to God that I spoke still on my knees." 
Since his father's death, he had led a lonely life, 
and devoted as he was to work, he hated the 
intrigues and gaieties of the Court. No wonder 
that he wrote to Sir John Harington, in 1603 : — 

" Good Knight, rest content and give heed to one that 
hath sorrowed in the bright lustre of a Court, and gone 
heavily even on the best seeming fair ground. 'Tis a 
great task to prove one's honesty, and yet not mar one's 
fortune. You have tasted a little hereof in our blessed 
Queen's time, who was more than a man, and, in truth, 
sometimes less than a woman — I wish I waited now in 
your presence chamber, with ease at my food, and rest in 
my bed. I am pushed from the shore of comfort, and 
know not where the winds and waves of a Court will bear 
me. I know it bringeth little comfort on earth ; and he 
is, I reckon, no wise man, that looketh this way to heaven." 

He certainly deserved his honours. " The 
labours which he underwent," says Gardiner, 
" were enormous. As Secretary, he had to 
conduct the whole of the Civil administration of 
the kingdom, to keep his eye upon the plots and 
conspiracies which were bursting out in every 
direction, to correspond with the Irish Govern- 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 179 

merit and to control its policy, and to carry on 
through the various ambassadors complicated 
negotiations with every State of importance in 
Europe, Besides all this, when Parliament was 
sitting, it was on him that the duty chiefly 
devolved of making the policy of the Government 
palatable to the House of Commons, of replying 
to all objections, and of obtaining the King's 
consent to the necessary alterations. As if all 
this were not enough, during the last few years 
of his life he undertook the office of Treasurer in 
addition to that of Secretary. Upon him fell all 
the burden of the attempt which he made to 
restore to a sound condition the disordered 
finances, and of mastering the numerous details 
from which alone he could obtain the knowledge 
necessary in order to remedy the evil." 

It is impossible here to touch upon all these 
manifold activities, but a brief account must be 
given of the " plots and conspiracies " (especially 
in so far as they concern Cecil's relations with 
Raleigh) ; of the religious question and his policy 
towards Catholics and Puritans ; and of his 
financial measures. 

Soon after James's accession, a Catholic 
conspiracy, known as the " Bye Plot," came to 
light, and during the examination of the prisoners, 
another and more formidable plot was discovered, 
in which Raleigh and his friend. Lord Cobham, 
were impHcated. What the whole rights and 
wrongs of the matter were will never be known, 
but Raleigh had certainly laid himself open to 

N 2 



i8o THE CECILS 

suspicion. He was admittedly the intimate friend 
of Cobham, a thorough scoundrel, and he had 
been the confidant of his designs, even if, as seems 
probable, he had not countenanced or assisted in 
them. Cecil had suspected him of disaffection 
even before James came to the throne, and since 
then he had been deprived of his office of Captain 
of the Guard, and of the lucrative post of Warden 
of the Stannaries, and had every reason to be 
discontented. " Whatever may be the truth on 
this difficult subject," says Gardiner, " there is 
no reason to doubt that Cecil at least acted in 
perfect good faith," and he easily disposes of the 
ridiculous theory that the whole conspiracy was a 
trick got up by Cecil. 

The relations between the two men had pre- 
viously been intimate. Raleigh's letter on the 
death of Lady Cecil has already been quoted. 
Other letters at Hatfield give further proof of 
their friendship. " Sir Walter," writes Cecil's 
young son, William, " we must all exclaim and 
cry out because you will not come down. You 
being absent, we are like soldiers that when their 
Captain is absent they know not what to do : 
you are so busy about idle matters. Sir Walter, 
I will be plain with you. I pray you leave all 
idle matters and come down to us." ^ 

Moreover, for the past two or three years 
Cecil had been a partner with Raleigh and 
Cobham in various privateering enterprises, 

1 1600 (Hatfield MSS., X. 459). Cecil lent Raleigh ;^4,ooo in 1602, 
but, perhaps, this is not a sign of friendship. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY i8i 

and though he complained to Sir G. Carew 
that they " used him unkindly," his inti- 
macy and trust in Raleigh is shown by a letter 
written so late as January, 1603, concerning 
one of their vessels which had made captures of 
a more than doubtful nature ; in it he says : 
" I pray you, as much as may be, conceal our 
adventure, or at the least my name, above any 
other. For though, I thank God, I have no other 
meaning than becometh an honest man in any of 
my actions, yet that which were another man's 
Pater noster, would be accounted in me a charm." ^ 

At Raleigh's trial, Cecil, at his first intervention 
in the proceedings, proclaimed both his old 
friendship for the prisoner and his present sus- 
picions. " I am divided in myself," he began, 
" and at great dispute what to say of this gentle- 
man at the bar. For it is impossible, be the 
obligation never so great, but the affections of 
nature and love will show themselves. A former 
dearness betwixt me and this gentleman tied 
upon the knot of his virtues, though slacked since 
by his actions, I cannot but acknowledge ; and 
the most of you know it." Probably he believed 
Raleigh guilty, at least of favouring the claims 
of Arabella Stuart, but at the same time he was 
the only member of the Court who raised his voice 
to protect the prisoner from the brutalities of Sir 
Edward Coke, and Lord Chief Justice Popham. 

After the trial Cecil continued his good offices, 
and it was owing to him that Raleigh's wife and 

1 Quoted by Edwards, I. 335. 



i82 THE CECILS 

child were saved from destitution. He also inter- 
fered to prevent the confiscation of his estate of 
Sherborne, at least for the time. 

Raleigh at least had no doubt of Cecil's good 
will towards him, and both he and his wife were 
always grateful. " Your lordship hath been our 
only comfort in our lamentable misfortune," 
wrote Lady Raleigh, and Sir Walter expressed 
himself still more warmly. No apology is needed 
for introducing another of his characteristic letters, 
written in December, 1603. 

" To give you thanks, to promise gratefulness, to return 
words, is all I can do ; but that your lordship will esteem 
them I cannot promise myself ; no, not so much as hope 
it. To use defences for the errors of former times, I 
cannot. For I have failed, both in friendship and in 
judgment. Therefore this is all that I can now say for 
myself ; vouchsafe to esteem me as a man raised from 
the dead, though not in body, yet in mind. For neither 
Fortune, which sometimes guided me — or rather Vanity, 
for with the other I was never in love — shall turn mine 
eyes from you toward her, while I have being : nor the 
World, with all the cares and enticements belonging unto 
it, shall ever weigh down (though it be of the greatest 
weight to mortal men) the memory alone of your lordship's 
true respects had of me ; respects tried by the touch ; 
tried by the fire ; true witnesses in true times ; and then 
only, when only available. 

" And although I must first attribute unto God, who 
inclined : and secondly and essentially, after God, to my 
dear Sovereign, who had goodness apt to be inclined : — 
goodness and mercy without comparison and example ; — 
yet I must never forget what I find was in your lordship's 
desire, what in your will, what in your words and works, 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 183 

so far as could become you as a Councillor and far beyond 
all due to me, as an offender. These I have fixed to my 
heart inseparably. From these, neither time nor persua- 
sion or aught else wont to change affections or to waste 
them, shall beat from me, or make old in me ; who will 
acknowledge your lordship with a love without mask or 
cover, and follow you to the end." ^ 

And several years later, after an angry inter- 
view with Salisbury, the occasion of which is not 
known, Raleigh wrote to Sir Walter Cope : — 

" I ever have been and am resolved that it was never in 
the worthy heart of Sir Robert Cecil to suffer me to fall, 
much less to perish. For whatsoever terms it hath 
pleased his lordship to use towards me, which might 
utterly despair anybody else, yet I know that he spake 
them as a Councillor, sitting in Council, and in company of 
such as would not otherwise have been satisfied. But, as 
God liveth, I would have bought his presence at a far 
dearer rate than those sharp words and these three months' 
close imprisonment, for it is in his lordship's face and 
countenance that I behold all that remains to me of com- 
fort and all the hope I have, and from which I shall never 
be beaten till I see the last of evils and the despair which 
hath no help. The blessing of God cannot make him cruel 
that was never so, nor prosperity teach any man of so 
great worth to delight in the endless adversity of an enemy, 
much less of him who in his very soul and nature can never 
be such a one towards him." ^ 

Such expressions afford strong testimony to the 
generous qualities of Salisbury, nor, as has been 
pointed out, is their witness invalidated by the 
suggestion that they were used for selfish reasons, 

1 Edwards, II. 288. 

"^ October gth, 161 j {Ibid., II. 329). 



i84 THE CECILS 

to flatter a man in power. " Raleigh used no such 
flatteries to Northampton ; though he well knew 
that Northampton, in 1603, had exhausted neither 
his venom nor his power to sting." ^ 

James entered upon his reign with the intention 
of being as tolerant in religious matters as was 
consistent with his own prerogatives. He pro- 
mised not to persecute any Catholics who would 
give an outward obedience to the law, and he 
remitted the recusancy fines " so long as they 
behaved as loyal subjects." He made his position 
perfectly clear to Cecil before his accession. " I 
did ever hold persecution as one of the infallible 
notes of a false Church," he writes ; and again " I 
will never allow in my conscience that the blood 
of any man shall be shed for diversity of opinion 
in religion, but I would be sorry that Catholics 
should so multiply as that they might be able to 
practise their old principles upon us." As far as 
laymen are concerned, that is to say, they should 
be tolerated so far as was consistent with the 
peace and safety of the realm. As to the piiests 
and Jesuits (" venomed wasps and fire-brands of 
sedition "), he urged Cecil to put the edict of 
banishment into execution, that they might be 
" safely transported beyond seas, where they may 
freely glut themselves upon their imaginated gods." 

Unfortunately the Catholics increased to such 
an extent in " number, courage, and insolence," 
during the first months of James's reign that he 

1 Edwards, I. 503. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 185 

took alarm, and in February, 1604, issued a 
proclamation for the banishment of the priests. 
This was followed in July by a severe Act against 
recusants. Neither of these measures was 
enforced, but they served to show the Catholics 
that they had little to hope for from the King, and 
their anger and disappointment led a section of 
them to give their sanction to deeds of violence, 
culminating in the Gunpowder Plot. It has been 
suggested that Salisbury deliberately egged on 
the conspirators to their destruction, while others 
have thought he got wind of the plot at an early 
stage, but allowed it to proceed so as to gain more 
credit by a dramatic discovery. On the whole, 
however, it may be said that " in the judgment of 
those best qualified to pronounce, the received 
story of Gunpowder Plot remains more likely 
to be true than any other." ^ 

The natural result of the plot was the introduc- 
tion of new and still more stringent penal laws, 
though once more James prevented their strict 
enforcement. In this matter Cecil upheld his 
sovereign, disliking persecution, except in so far 
as Catholics showed themselves " absolute seducers 
of the people from temporal obedience and 
confident persuaders to rebellion." Strongly as 
one must condemn the severe restrictions placed 
on the recusants, it must always be remembered 
that the Church of Rome " was pledged to change 
the moral and intellectual atmosphere in which 
Englishmen moved and breathed." 

1 Professor Montague, History of England, 1603 — 1660, p. 31. 



i86 THE CECILS 

Salisbury himself defines his views in a letter to 
Sir Henry Wotton (June i6th, 1606).^ 

" So clear and apparent," he writes, " is now the hatred 
of almost all those of that profession to the present 
government of this Church and Commonwealth, and so 
envious are they of the long blessings of peace and plenty 
which God hath bestowed upon our nation these many 
years in the true profession of the Gospel, as they have not 
only sought by all overt means to practise the destruction 
thereof, but their masters and rabbins, the Jesuits, who 
are now become the only fire-brands of Christendom, have 
and do continually seek to corrupt the very souls and 
consciences of his Majesty's simpler sort of subjects with 
this detestable doctrine, that they may not stick at 
rebellion and conspiracy, when they are summoned to it 
for the good of the Church." 

On the Continent Salisbury was looked upon as 
the special enemy of the Catholics, owing to the 
malicious reports of the Jesuits. " Among the 
Duke of Lerma's pages of the Chamber," writes 
Sir Charles Cornwallis from Madrid, this same 
year " a common table talk it is, what an extreme 
persecutor your lordship is of the Catholics in 
England. Hereupon every man wishes that their 
hands might give you the Pugnaladoll, that your 
cruelty deserveth " ; to which Salisbury replies 
with dignity, that he commends himself to God's 
protection, and that " the more danger is laid 
before me, the more zealous it makes me of God's 
and my country's service." ^ 

1 Court and Times of James I., I. 65. 

2 Winwood's Memorials, II. 236, 253. See also, for other Jesuit plots 
II. 202, III. 49 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 187 

The case of the Puritans is entirely different. On 
opening Parliament, in March, 1604, the King 
declared his hostility to the Puritans, who were 
" ever discontented with the present Government, 
and impatient to suffer any superiority, which 
maketh their sect unable to be suffered in any 
well-governed Commonwealth." At the Hampton 
Court Conference in January they had stated 
their grievances, but James had not the slightest 
sympathy with them, and rated them soundly. 
" If this be all they have to say," were his last 
words. " I shall make them conform .themselves, 
or I will harry them out of theland, or else do 
worse." Whereupon we are told that Cecil 
thanked God for having given the King an under- 
standing heart. Cecil's views are set forth in a 
letter to the Archbishop of York,^ in which he 
says it was necessary to correct the Puritans " for 
disobedience to the lawful ceremonies of the 
Church ; wherein, although many religious men 
of moderate spirits might be borne with, yet such 
are the turbulent humours of some that dream of 
nothing but a new hierarchy, directly opposite 
to the state of a Monarchy, as the dispensation 
with such men were the highway to break all the 
bonds of unity, to nourish schism in the Church 
and Commonwealth. It is well said of a learned 
man that there are schisms in habit, as well as 
in opinion, et non servatur unitas in credendo, nisi 
adsit in colendo." Unity of belief could not be 

1 February, 1605 (Lodge's Illustrations, III. 125). 



i88 THE CECILS 

preserved except by uniformity of worship. 
Holding such opinions, SaHsbury supported the 
King in the severe measures adopted in order to 
impose conformity on the Puritans. By the 
Canons of 1604 the penalty of excommunication 
was inflicted on all who " should afhrm any of 
the Thirty-nine Articles to be erroneous, or any- 
thing in the Prayer Book to be repugnant to 
Scripture, or any of the rites and ceremonies of the 
Church to be superstitious, or should maintain 
that government by bishops was contrary to the 
Word of God." Some three hundred of the clergy 
refused to conform and were ejected, and writing 
of them, Salisbury says: — 

" For the religion which they profess I reverence them 
and their calling ; but for their unconformity, I acknow- 
ledge myself in no way warranted to deal for them, 
because the course they take is no way safe in such a 
monarchy as this ; where his Majesty aimeth at no other 
end than where there is but one true faith and doctrine 
preached, there to establish one form, so as a perpetual 
peace may be settled in the Church of God ; where 
contrarywise these men, by this singularity of theirs in 
things approved to be indifferent by so many reverend 
fathers of the Church, by so great multitudes of their own 
brethren, yea many that have been formerly touched with 
the like weaknesses, do daily minister cause of scandal in 
the Church of England, and give impediment to that great 
and goodly work, towards which all honest men are bound 
to yield their best means, according to their several 
callings, namely to suppress idolatry and Romish super- 
stition in all his Majesty's dominions." ^ 

1 Cranborne to some gentlemen of Leicestershire, April, 1605 {Hat- 
field MSS. Quoted by Gardiner, I. 201). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 189 

Salisbury succeeded the old Earl of Dorset as 
Lord Treasurer in April, 1608. " I know not 
anything the King hath done in that kind more 
universally applauded," wrote Sir Henry Neville.^ 
" So great a reformation many imagine will follow 
that change." 

The Exchequer was then in a desperate con- 
dition. The debt amounted to nearly a million 
and the ordinary annual expenditure exceeded 
the ordinary revenue by £73,000. To a great 
extent this condition of affairs was due to the 
King's extravagance, which, in spite of real 
endeavours on his part, he was quite unable to 
control. A story is told which illustrates his 
ignorance of the value of money, and at the same 
time shows how Salisbury tried to keep his 
prodigality in check. It appears that James 
had ordered a large sum of money (variously 
stated as ;f5,ooo and £20,000) to be given to 
his favourite, Carr, then Viscount Rochester. 
Salisbury, " thinking it too great a sum to be 
disposed of lightly, laid it in silver upon tables 
in the gallery of Salisbury House ; and, having 
invited the King to dinner, conducted him through 
that gallery to the dining-room. The King, 
suddenly struck with the appearance of so large 
a heap of silver, asked what the money was for ; 
to which the Treasurer replied that he had 
received his Majesty's commands to give it to the 
Viscount Rochester. The King, who had not 

* To Sir R. Winwood, May 12th, 1608 (Winwood's Memorials, II. 
929). 



190 THE CECILS 

before appreciated the value of the gift, said it 
was too much, and made the favourite be 
contented with less than half." ^ 

One of Salisbury's first proceedings as Treasurer 
was to impose duties to the amount of -£yo,ooo, 
without the sanction of Parliament. At the same 
time he lessened the duties on articles of general 
consumption, such as currants, sugar, and tobacco. 
In addition to this, by severe economies, by sale 
of Crown lands, and by enforcing every payment 
to which the King could lay claim, the debt was 
reduced in two years to £300,000 More, how- 
ever, was still required, and Salisbury therefore 
endeavoured to raise money by what is known 
as the " Great Contract." He asked the Commons 
for a supply of ;f6oo,ooo to discharge the King's 
debts and for other outstanding expenses, and for 
a permanent support of £200,000 a year. In 
return for this, he promised, on behalf of the King, 
to remit certain burdensome prerogatives of the 
Crown, especially those connected with feudal 
tenures, wardships and purveyance. Prolonged 
negotiations followed, during which Salisbury, as 
the mouthpiece of James, continually shifted his 
ground. The Treasurer was supported throughout 
by the Lords. As Sir Roger Aston wrote, " The 
little beagle hath run about and brought the rest 
of the great hounds to a perfect tune." ^ But 
as the King continually raised his demands, the 
Commons, influenced by the growing opposition 

1 Wilson's Life and Reign of James I., p. 6i. 

2 July 24th, 1610 {Cal. S. P. Dom.). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 191 

of the various interests affected by the proposals, 
hardened their hearts and refused to make any 
further concessions. The inevitable result was 
that the whole scheme fell through, and though the 
King was mainly to blame, the odium, both of the 
proposals and of their failure, fell on the Treasurer. 
Bacon, the shrewdest political observer of the 
time, has left on record his opinion of Salisbury's 
financial methods, in a letter to the King written 
a few months after his cousin's death : — 

" To have your wants and necessities in particular as it 
were hanged up in two tablets before the eyes of your lords 
and commons, to be talked of for four months together : 
to have all your courses to help yourself in revenue or 
profit put into printed books, which were wont to be held 
arcana imperii : to have such worms of aldermen to lend 
for ten in the hundred upon good assurance, and with such 
[entreaty ?], as if it should save the bark of your fortune : 
to contract still where mought be had the readiest pay- 
ment, and not the best bargain : to stir a number of pro- 
jects for your profit, and then to blast them, and leave 
your Majesty nothing but the scandal of them : to pretend 
even carriage between your Majesty's rights and the ease 
of the people, and to satisfy neither : These courses and 
others the like I hope are gone with the deviser of them ; 
which have turned your Majesty to inestimable prejudice."^ 

In reading this, one has to remember Bacon's 
personal animus against his cousin, and also the 
fact that he was hoping to take his place. But 
malicious as is the expression of his opinion, it no 
doubt represents a widely held view. It is, how- 
ever, not the whole of the truth. The fact remains 

^ Bacon to the King, September, 1612 (Spedding, IV. 313). 



192 THE CECILS 

that Salisbury did produce some sort of order out 
of the chaos that existed before he took over the 
office of Treasurer, and succeeded in " raising the 
revenue to an amount which would have filled 
Elizabeth with admiration, though it was all too 
little for her successor." And if it is true, as has 
been said, that the total result of his financial 
administration was the halving of the debt, at 
the cost of almost doubling the deficiency, it is, 
nevertheless, to be remembered that the former 
was the result of his own labour, while over the 
latter he had little control.^ 

Undoubtedly the system of bargaining set up 
between King and Commons was undignified and 
demoralising, and emphasised the divergence of 
interests between the Sovereign and his people 
which led to such disastrous results. It is 
Salisbury's action in the matter of the Great 
Contract which is thought to have been responsible 
for the decline of his power during the last months 
of his life. Goodman tells a story about a certain 
un-named " great peer," who, on his death-bed, 
sent to the King, begging him not to part with any 
of his prerogatives, especially the Court of Wards, 
and warning him against being ruled by " some who 
did endeavour to engross and monopolise the King, 
and kept other able men out of his service." After 
which, adds Goodman, " the Earl of Sahsbury, who 
had been a great stirrer in that business, and was 
the man aimed at, began to decline," ^ 

^ Gardiner, II. 144 ; Spedding, IV. 276. 
2 Court of James I., I. 141. 



CHAPTER X 

ROBERT CECIL, FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 

{continued) 

On other matters, as well as the " Great Con- 
tract," it is difficult to say how far the policy 
carried out by Salisbury was in its origin his or the 
King's. He certainly gave him good advice on the 
subject of the Union with Scotland, urging, though 
in vain, that the time was not ripe, and that all 
that could be done at present was to appoint 
commissioners to examine the whole question. 

In foreign affairs his policy was to preserve 
the independence of the Netherlands and to 
preserve the balance of power between France 
and Spain. Though filled with hatred of the 
latter country, he, no doubt, agreed with James 
in thinking peace necessary, and he was instru- 
mental in bringing it about in 1604. And this 
led to an incident which is very difficult to under- 
stand or explain. On the completion of the 
treaty, all the chief ministers of James, including 
Cecil, accepted pensions from the Spanish 
Ambassador. Cecil's amounted to £1,000 a year, 
and was raised in the following year to £1,500. 
In 1609 he demanded a still further increase, 
and asked that each piece of information should 
be paid for separately. Such a transaction is, 
of course, not to be judged by the standards of 

c. o 



194 THE CECILS 

the present day. " It was," says Dr. Jessopp/ 
" part of that vile system which his father had 
estabhshed, and into which he was perhaps forced, 
of employing every means that came to hand for 
obtaining information of the doings of the 
Catholics. That he gave any information, or 
that he ever betrayed the trust committed to him, 
there is not a tittle of evidence to show." This 
is not strictly true, for he certainly did give 
information, but of such a character that the 
Spanish Ambassadors continually complained that 
he was not keeping to his part of the bargain, and 
as the relations between the countries grew worse, 
the information became more and more confused.^ 
He is said to have accepted a pension also from 
France, and it is probable that he was able, or 
thought he would be able, to do good services to 
both these friendly powers, and so to further 
the growth of good relations between them, 
without in any way betraying the interests of 
England. 

These transactions are the more strange since 
we know from other sources that Salisbury was 
distinguished among his contemporaries for being 
impervious to bribes. " The heart of man," says 
Sir Walter Cope, " was never more free from 
baseness and bribes : he hated the bribe and the 
taker." ' 

The corruption at Court in the early part of 

1 Diet. Nat. Biog., IX. 402. 

2 Gardiner, I. 216. 

* " Apology for Sir R. Cecil," etc. (Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa, I. 120). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 195 

James's reign was notorious, but Cecil set himself 
against it with all his power. As an instance, 
we may quote from his instructions to the com- 
missioners who were to act in a proposed scheme 
for compounding wardships. 

" And now," he writes, " because I do consider how 
subject all men's actions are to calumny, ... I do also 
require you to make it known particularly to all persons 
that shall seek composition, that they shall not receive 
their assurance from his Majesty without taking their 
corporal oath in open court that they have neither 
promised nor paid, directly nor indirectly, any money, or 
other benefit, for obtaining the same, other than the sums 
agreed upon to his Majesty's use, and the ordinary fees 
of the clerks and officers. Thus have you now a perfect 
understanding of his Majesty's royal intention . . . and 
have also perceived the care I have to preserve your reputa- 
tion as much as my own, though that is more in danger to 
be touched, because the envious minds of men, who judge 
others commonly by their own affections, will be apt to 
conceive that I, who am his Majesty's principal officer in 
the Court of Wards, would not endeavour to further this 
his Majesty's good intention with so great care and such 
contentment, except some way were open for me by this 
course to derive to myself some private gain, to counter- 
vail the diminution of that power and authority which by 
this means is taken from me to bind or pleasure any man 
by virtue of this office during my time." ^ 

This proposal came to nothing, but later in the 
reign Salisbury handed over to the King all the 
profits of the office of Master of the Wards. 

Even Osborne, a very unfavourable witness, 

1 Letter to Sir John Savile and others, October 3rd, 1603 (Lodge's 
Illustrations, III. 41). 

O 2 



196 THE CECILS 

says : " How many soever his faults were, he 
was of an incomparable prudence, and coming so 
near after such an unadvised scatterer as King 
James, he might have feathered his family better 
than he did, but that he looked upon low things 
with contempt ... he not standing charged with 
any grosser bribery or corruption than what lay 
inclusive under the ceremony of New Year's gifts, 
or his own or servants sharing with such as by 
importunity rather than merit had obtained 
debentures out of the Exchequer." As to the 
New Year's gifts, another writer states that the 
first year he was Lord Treasurer he refused them 
all, amounting to above £1,800, " as supposing 
them to be some kind of bribes whereby he 
might wink at the corruption of officers."^ 

Even before he was Treasurer, his " New Year's 
gifts " were of considerable value. The list of 
those received at Christmas, 1602, has been 
preserved, and is worth transcribing.^ 

" From Lord Burghley, one bason and ewer of silver 

white, io8| oz. 3 plates of silver, 27 oz. 
From the Company of Merchant Venturers, one great 

standing bowl in a case. [Margin : ' sold to 

Prescott.'] 
From Sir John Roper, one other great standing bowl in 

a case. [' Sold to Prescott.'] 
From my Lord of Hertford, one pair of great Dutch 

pots, gilt, 1625 oz. 
From Mr. Nicolson, one fair standing bowl. [' Sold to 

Prescott,'] 

1 Goodman, I. 36. 

2 Hatfield MSS.. XII. 527. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 197 

From Mr. Owen, one other standing bowl, lesser, 8 oz. 

[' Given to Sir Henry Neville's child.'] 
From the Bishop of Winchester, one standing cup. 
From Doc. Stanop, one other standing cup, lesser. 

[' Given to Doctor Elvine.'] 
From my Lord Nores, one cup of gold in a velvet case. 
From Mr. Goalie, of Devonshire, one basin and ewer of 

fine ' purslen,' gilt. Six fair dishes of ' purslen,' 

gilt. Six lesser, of fine ' purslen,' gilt. One 

perfuming pot in the form of a cat, of ' purslen.' 

One fine voider of China, gilt. 
From my Lady Digbie, one fine ' quishon,' lined with 

carnation satin. 
From Mr. Cope, one sweet-bag. 
From Mr. Skenner, one other sweet-bag. 
From my Lady Laiton, one chair embroidered. 
From Comptroller of the Works, a fire shovel, tongs, and 

a lock for a door. 
Mr. Savadge, two barrels of figs. 
From Sir Robert Crosse, one little casket. 
From a ward, one great standing cup with scollop 

shells, 66 oz. [' Given at the christening of the 

French Amb : child.'] 
From a ward, one great salt set in crystal, 106 oz. 
From Mr. Penruddock, one salt, 28 oz." 

On the subject of valuable presents, Cecil 
expressed himself plainly in a letter to the Earl 
of Northumberland : — ^ 

" I have received a coach and four horses from you," he 
writes, " a gift greater than ever I was beholding to any 
subject, and that I would have refused, whatsoever had 
come of it, if I could have been present to have argued 
with you. For first, I must say that gifts of value ought 

1 October gth, 1600 [Hatfield MSS., X. 347). 



igS THE CECILS 

not to pass between those whose minds contemn all the 
knots that utility can fasten. Toys, which argue only 
memory in absence, may be interchanged, so long as they 
are no other. Secondly, there is at this time something 
in question which concerns you in profit, wherein the care 
I have shown to further your desires will now be imputed 
to this expectation, and so give a taint to that profession 
which I have made only to dehght in your favour, in 
respect of your sincerity and abihty to do her Majesty 
service. Thirdly, it grieves me to think that divers of my 
adversaries, who are apt to decry all values that are set 
upon my coin, may think that you, who should know me 
better than they do, find me either facile or not clear from 
servile ends ; the conceit whereof so much troubles me 
as it has almost made me venture a desperate refusal, 
but that I feared to have made you doubtful that I had 
judged you by others' scantling. Next, I pray you think 
whether the eyes of the world can wink at these shows, 
and whether if the Queen shall hear it, she will not be apt 
to suspect me that I am the earnester in your cause for it. 
But what should I now call back yesterday ? For I have 
accepted your fair present rather than discontent you, and 
have only reserved an assurance that this was given me 
out of the vastness of your kindness, not out of any other 
mistaking my disposition. For requital whereof, I can 
only return this present, that though I have neither gold 
nor silver, yet I have love and honesty." 

The records of gifts made to Cecil are almost 
the only indications of his tastes and private 
occupations which his correspondence affords. 
Thus we learn that he was very fond of horses, 
and also of hawking. Within a few months, in 
1593, he received four horses, as gifts from 
different friends, as well as "a suite of four 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 199 

white horses " for his coach, which he ordered 
from Embden— and not a year passes without 
his receiving both horses and other animals. 
Some of these must have been embarrassing pets, 
such as a dog sent by Sir S. Bagenall, which the 
donor boasts is " the most furiosest beast that 
ever I saw,'' or the " paraquito," given by Sir 
John Gilbert, with instructions as follows : " He 
will eat all kinds of meat, and nothing will hurt 
him except it be very salt. If you put him on 
the table at meal time he will make choice of his 
meat. He must be kept very warm and after 
he hath filled himself he will set in a gentlewoman's 
ruff all the day. In the afternoon he will eat 
bread or oatmeal groats, drink water or claret 
wine : every night he is put in the cage and 
covered warm." 

His correspondence bears constant witness to 
his interest in hawking, and his friends vie with 
each other in seconding his efforts to secure hawks 
that will "fly in a high place." In the year 
1600 he was stocking his park at Theobalds 
with deer, and received many " fat bucks " 
and does, as well as ten red deer from Lord 
Sheffield. 

Among other gifts, Bishop Bancroft sends him 
a vat of Rhenish wine, containing six score 
gallons, which he had brought from Embden. 
" You should not have had it," he writes, " but 
that I did so surfeit at Embden, in quaffing to 
such and so many healths, not forgetting your 
own (but remembering you better, I trust, in my 



200 THE CECILS 

prayers), that now I can be well content to part 
with it, and to make it as you have made me, 
that is, your own for ever." ^ 

Many towns chose him as their patron and 
protector. The Corporation of Exeter begs him 
to accept the " small annuity which we paid to 
our Lord, your father " ; the bailiffs of Colchester 
present him with £io in gold, " as their best 
means to express their duties " ; and the Corpo- 
ration of Waterford sends him " a pair of bed 
coverings and two rondells of aquavite," and 
begs his furtherance of their suits. 

The Bishop of Carlisle (Henry Robinson) sends 
him a Bible, and his letter on the occasion is 
worth quoting :— ^ 

" I desire greatly to show you my gratitude. But, as 
one said to Augustus, " e'ffecisti ut vivam et moriar 
ingratus." Still, hoping that you are like God, of whom 
it is written ' If there be a willing mind, it is accepted 
according to that a man hath and not according to that 
he hath not,' I send you this book (indeed incomparably 
better than all worldly treasures), &c." 

One more letter must be given in this connection, 
as it proves that Cecil was not so indifferent to 
books as has generally been maintained, and also 
affords additional evidence of his avoidance of 
recompense for services rendered. A Mr. Proby 
sends him " a collection from ancient records of 
personal services due to the Crown, especially at 
the Coronation," and says : " When I brought you 

1 July 26th, 1600 (Hatfield MSS., X. 245). 

2 January 8th, 1599 (ibid., IX. 13). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 201 

the book of the state and condition of Island, 
you told me that you esteemed books more than 
gold, as you showed last year, when I could not 
procure you to accept a small token of the good 
I received by your means ; which astonished me 
much until Sir John Stanhope told me it was 
your practice not to take anything of charge from 
those you liked best of." ^ 

As to his other personal pleasures, it is not 
necessary to pay attention to the scurrilous gossip 
which charged him with immoral pursuits.^ But 
we learn that he was fond of play, and on one 
occasion lost ;f6oo in one night. ^ 

He also delighted in buying and selling land and 
houses in all parts of the country, and engaged 
in various mercantile and maritime transactions. 
On one occasion he purchased a fourth share of 
the Refusal, of Plymouth, 120 tons, " now at 
sea, in cause of reprisal, and of all the prizes and 
gains that have been or shall be taken during 
the voyage." This was a most fortunate specu- 
lation, as within a fortnight, the Refusal returned, 
in company with two other ships, bringing two 
prizes which they took coming out of Lisbon. 
One was a ship of 400 tons, laden with sugar, 
pepper, cinnamon, ginger, indigo, and other goods, 
intended for Venice ; the other, a " flyboat " of 
140 tons, with muskets and calivers, gum, lacquer, 

1 January 3rd, 1599 {Hatfield MSS., IX. 8). 

2 It is curious, by the way, that in one of his letters (to his servant 
Roger Kirkham, 1605), he speaks of " my younger son," a person not 
known to the genealogists (Lodge's Illustrations, III. 171). What 
became of this youth ? 

8 This was in J603 {Cal. S. P. Dom. ; James I., VI. 283). 



202 THE CECILS 

oil, iron, calico, spices, etc., the total value being 
estimated at £100,000/ 

Salisbury's main occupation, however, outside 
his official labours, lay in building and laying 
out grounds, tastes which he inherited from his 
father. On the death of Lord Burghley the house 
and estate of Theobalds came into his possession, 
and though the house itself was actually com- 
pleted some ten years earlier, he continued to 
improve it and to beautify the estate so long as 
it remained in his hands. The large number of 
letters from his agents, which still exist, show that 
he devoted much time and thought to improving 
the grounds, making an artificial pond and lakes, 
and enlarging the property whenever possible. 
His extensive purchases and enclosures earned 
him some ill-will, and in 1605, Anthony Wingfield, 
writing to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, 
sends the following " homely English epigram 
of the Contented Peer," no doubt intended for 
him : — 

" The Peer content, but not contented Peer, 
Saith still content^ but never is content : 
For, search the wide world over far and near 

None like this Peer to filthy lucre bent. 
Content, he saith, but you must thus expound him. 
Content to buy his neighbour's lands that bound him." ^ 

This was one of many scurrilous lampoons 
circulated by the envious hangers-on of the 



1 April, 1602 {Hatfield MSS., XII. 83, 
^ Lodge's lUustralions, III. 178. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 203 

Court. Another, which also refers to his 
enclosures, takes the form of an epitaph : — 

" Here lyes throwne, for the wormes to eate 
Little bossive^ Robin, that was so great. 
Not Robin Goodfellow, nor Robin Hood, 
But Robin, th' encloser of Hatfield Wood." ^ 

In July, 1606, Salisbury entertained James 
and his brother-in-law, Christian IV., King of 
Denmark, at Theobalds. The two Kings rode 
thither in great state, and were entertained with 
" many very learned, delicate, and significant 
shows and devices." At the entrance of one of 
the gates was a tree " with leaves and other 
ornaments resembling a great oak ; the leaves 
cut all out of green silk, and set so artificially, 
that after certain speeches delivered, and songs 
of Welcome sung, as the Kings' Majesties passed 
away, even in a trice all the leaves showered from 
the tree, both upon the heads and garments of 
both the Kings, and of a great multitude of their 
followers ; upon every leaf being written in gold 
letters this word, ' Welcome,' and upon some, 
twice ' Welcome.' " ^ 

The visit lasted for four days, and Sir John 
Harington, who was one of the guests, has left a 
lurid description of the scenes which took place.'' 

" I have been well-nigh overwhelmed with carousal and 
sport of all kinds," he says. " The sports began each day 

1 Bossive, humpbacked. So Standen nicknamed him " Monsieur de 
Bossu." 

2 Secret History of the Court of James I. (1811), I. 235. 

3 Quoted from a contemporary pamphlet in Ciutterbuck, Hist, of 
Hertfordshire, II. 92. 

* Nugae Antiquae, ed. 1679, II. 126 sqq. 



204 THE CECILS 

in such manner and such sort, as well nigh persuaded me 
of Mahomet's paradise. We had women, and indeed wine 
too, of such plenty as would have astonished each sober 
beholder. Our feasts were magnificent and the two 
Royal guests did most lovingly embrace each other at 
table, and I think the Dane hath strongly wrought on our 
good English nobles, for those, whom I never could get to 
taste good liquor, now follow the fashion and wallow in 
beastly delights. The ladies abandon their sobriety and 
are seen to roll about in intoxication." 

On one occasion when a masque representing 
Solomon and the coming of the Queen of Sheba 
was performed after a great feast, none of the 
performers, from the Queen of Sheba downwards, 
could stand upright, " wine did so occupy their 
upper chambers," and the King of Denmark fell 
down, and had to be carried to bed. " I never 
did see such lack of good order, discretion or 
sobriety, as I have now done," adds Sir John. 

James became so enamoured of Theobalds that 
he induced Salisbury, in 1607, to make it over to 
him, giving him in exchange the estate and palace 
of Hatfield. The preamble of the Act of Parlia- 
ment for the conveyance of Theobalds to com- 
missioners for the use of the King, states that : — 

" Whereas the Mansion-house of Theobalds, in the 
County of Hertford, being the inheritance of Robert Earl 
of Salisbury, as well for situation in a good open air, and 
for the large and goodly buildings, and delight of the 
gardens, walks and park, replenished with red fallow deer, 
as also for the nearness to the city of London northward, 
and to his Majesty's Forest of Waltham Chase and Park 
of Enfield, with the commodity of a navigable river falling 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 205 

into the Thames, is a place so convenient for his Majesty's 
princely sports and recreation, and so commodious for the 
residence of his Highness' Court and entertainment of 
foreign Princes or their ambassadors, upon all occasions, 
as his Majesty hath taken great liking thereunto ; of 
which the said Earl having taken particular knowledge, 
although it be the only dwelling-house left unto him by 
his father, most willingly, dutifully made offer thereof unto 
his Highness, with any such other his manors and lands 
thereabouts as should be thought fit for his Majesty's use, 
preferring therein his Majesty's health and contentation 
before any private respects of his own, which offer his 
Majesty hath graciously forborne to accept, without a full 
and princely recompense to the said Earl," etc.^ 

Salisbury gave up possession with another 
grand entertainment to the King, and Ben Jonson 
composed a masque for the occasion. It opened 
with a speech by the genius of the house, who 
appeared in a melancholy posture and dressed in 
a mourning garb. The first stanza ran as follows : 

" Let not your glories darken, to behold 

The place and me, her genius here, so sad ; 
Who, by bold rumour have been lately told, 

That I must change the loved lord I had, 
And he, now in the twilight of sere age, 

Begin to seek a habitation new ; 
And all his fortunes and himself engage 

Unto a seat his father never knew : 
And I, uncertain what I must endure. 
Since all the ends of Destiny are obscure." 

James still further enlarged the Park, and 
surrounded it with a brick wall ten miles in 
circumference. He made it his chief country 

» Clutterbuck, II. 93. 



2o6 THE CECILS 

seat, and died there in 1625. In 1650 the com- 
missioners appointed by Parhament to survey 
the Royal palaces, reported that Theobalds was 
an excellent building in very good repair, and 
estimated the materials of the house to be worth 
£8,275. Notwithstanding, the palace was pulled 
down in 1651, the proceeds of the sale of the 
materials being divided among the army/ 

The Manor of Hatfield, which thus came into 
possession of the Cecils, had already a distin- 
guished history.^ Originally the property of the 
monastery of St. Ethelred of Ely, it became the 
residence of the bishops of that see, when the 
monastery was erected into a bishopric in 11 08. 
The palace was rebuilt by Cardinal Morton, who 
was Bishop of Ely from 1479 to i486, and of his 
fine red-brick building, portions, including the 
gatehouse and the old banqueting hall (now the 
stables), still remain. In 1539 Bishop Goodrich 
conveyed the lordship and manor to Henry VIIL, 
in exchange for the site of Icklington Priory 
and other lands, and the palace became a Royal 
residence. Here Prince Edward lived with his 
tutor, Richard Coxe ; and in 1550, in the fourth 
year of his reign, he transferred it to his sister, 
the Princess Elizabeth, who resided at Hatfield 
during Mary's reign. Here, too, " under the 
celebrated oak which tradition has associated 
with her name, it is more than probable that she 
learned the news of her sister's death, and her 

' Lysons, Environs of London, IV. 38. 

2 Brewer, English Studies. See also Gotcb.. Homes of the Cecils, as 
before. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 207 

own accession to the throne ; and here she held 
her first Council." Throughout her life Elizabeth 
delighted in the place, and often availed herself 
of the opportunity it afforded for hunting, and 
hawking, and coursing. 

The old palace was not suitable for Salisbury's 
purposes, and he lost no time in setting about 
his new house. He paid a farewell visit to 
Theobalds in April, and on the same day the 
Earl of Suffolk (the builder of Audley End), the 
Earl of Worcester and the Earl of Southampton, 
met him at Hatfield, " to discuss the site of his 
future habitation." The site chosen was close to 
the old building, part of which was turned into 
stables for the new owner. We may be sure that 
Salisbury was aided by these three noblemen also 
in planning his house, for he remained his own 
architect, employing Robert Lyminge as his 
foreman builder, and Thomas Wilson, his steward, 
as general superintendent of the works. Building 
was begun before the end of the year, and pro- 
ceeded so rapidly that the house was practically 
finished in 1612, not, however, until after the death 
of its owner. 

Burghley and Theobalds were built in the old 
feudal manner, round courts. Hatfield occupies 
three sides of a hollow square, open to the south. 
In spite of two disastrous fires, one in March, 
1667, the other in 1835, when the west wing was 
destroyed, the exterior of the house presents 
very much the same appearance as it did three 
hundred years ago. Inside more changes have 



2o8 THE CECILS 

been made, but much of it still retains its original 
character. The two great chambers — one at each 
end of the house — the Library on the west and King 
James's room on the east, have been little altered, 
and the Long Gallery, one hundred and sixty feet 
long, which connects them, though the fretted 
ceiling has been restored and other renovations 
made, remains a noble example of a Jacobean 
interior. The same applies to the hall and the 
chapel ; fine oak panelling and carving — including 
the great staircase, with its richly carved newel- 
posts, each supporting a figure — remains a 
characteristic feature, and bears witness to the 
taste of the founder and to the excellence of the 
workmanship. 

Hatfield provided Salisbury with ample scope 
to display his taste in laying out the grounds, 
which interested him only less than the house 
itself. Of the original garden little remains, 
but that on the west side, called the Priory 
Garden, with its four mulberry trees planted by 
James I., belonged to the old palace, and the 
rosery is also of ancient date. 

Evelyn, who visited Hatfield in 1643, specially 
mentions the garden and vineyard, " rarely 
watered and planted " ; and Pepys also has 
something to say about them. On his first visit 
(July 22nd, 1661) " Mr. Looker, my Lord's 
gardener, showed me the house, the chappell 
with brave pictures, and above all, the garden, 
such as I never saw in all my life : nor so good 
flowers, nor so great gooseberrys, as big as nut- 




PLAN OF GROUND FLOOR, HATFIELD HOUSE 
(Adapted from the Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire with the permission 
of the Royal Commission and the consent of the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office) 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 209 

megs." On another occasion (August nth, 1667) 
he records : "As soon as we had dined, we walked 
out into the park through the fine walk of trees, 
and to the vineyard, and there showed them 
that, which is in good order, and indeed a place 
of great delight : which, together with our fine 
walk through the park, was of as much pleasure 
as could be desired in the world for country 
pleasure and good ayre." ^ 

For this vineyard Lord Salisbury received 
from France 20,000 vines, at the cost of £50, and 
10,000 more were expected. But though the 
name still remains, the vines have long since 
disappeared. From the French Queen he received 
500 fruit trees, and other friends sent him cherries, 
nectarines and other trees. " His two gardeners 
were Montague Jennings and John Tradescant, 
afterwards horticulturist to Charles I., and father 
of the still more celebrated John Tradescant, 
founder of the Tradescant Museum, now better 
known as the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford." ^ 

Salisbury was not yet fifty years old, but his 
incessant labours were rapidly wearing out his 
feeble frame. He had been out of health for 
some time, and towards the end of 16 11 he had 
a severe attack of rheumatism in his right arm. 
This passed off, but a few weeks later he was 
seized with ague and other complications. He 
was reported also to be melancholy and heavy- 
spirited ; "so as it is on all hands concluded," 

1 Diary, ed. Wheatley, II. 68, 69 ; VII. 64. 

2 Brewer, p. 122. 

C. P 



210 THE CECILS 

wrote Sir John More to Win wood, " that his lord- 
ship must shortly leave this world, or at least dis- 
burden himself of a great part of his affairs. In 
this short time of his lordship's weakness, almost 
all our great affairs are come to a stand, and his 
hand is already shrewdly missed ; carendo magis 
quam fruendo quod honum est perspicimus." ^ 
From this attack he recovered so far that at the 
beginning of March he was able to " walk daily 
in his garden," and to receive frequent visits 
from the King and Queen. " His sickness 
drowned all other news," we hear.^ " Every- 
man's care and curiosity ran that way, insomuch 
that it seems he was never so well loved as now, 
when they thought him so near lost." After a 
short respite, however, his malady, which now 
proved to be a complication of scurvy and dropsy, 
gained upon him, and on April 27th, " the vigour 
of his mind maintaining his weak body," he left 
London and proceeded to Bath. Here, at first, 
he derived benefit from the waters, but his 
disease again got the upper hand, and his con- 
dition became so desperate that his son. Lord 
Cranborne, was sent for, and came posthaste 
with Sir Edward Cecil to Bath. After some 
sixteen days' sojourn Salisbury resolved to return 
to London, but his strength was unequal to the 
effort, and he died at Marlborough on May 24th, 
1612. His body was carried to Hatfield, and he 



1 February lytli, 1612 (Winwood's Memorials, III. 338). 
' Chamberlain to Carleton, March nth, 1612 (Court and Times of 
James I., I. 137). 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 211 

was buried in Hatfield Church " without any- 
great pomp, by his special appointment." ^ 
According to his own directions the mourners 
were to be confined to his own servants and 
intimate friends, since he desired "to go without 
noise and vanity out of this vale of misery as a 
man that hath long been satiated with terrestrial 
glory, and now contemplates only heavenly joy." 
These words are taken from his will, which was 
made only two months before his death. In 
this document he makes a remarkable confession 
of faith.2 

" Because I would be glad to leave behind me some 
such testimony of my particular opinion in point of faith 
and doctrine, as might confute all those who, judging 
others by themselves, are apt to censure all men to be of 
little or no religion, which by their calling are employed 
in matters of State and government, under great kings and 
princes, as if there was no Christian policy free from 
irreligion or impiety, I have resolved to express myself 
and my opinion in manner following. First, concerning 
the infinite and ineffable Trinity in Unity and Unity in 
Trinity, and the mystery of reconciliation in Christ Jesus, 
as it concerns the Church, the saints, their sins, their souls 
and bodies, and lastly, their retribution in heaven ; — in 
all these points, and every of them, I do assuredly believe 
in my heart, as I have always made profession with my 
mouth, whatever is contained in the Apostles' Creed." 

After touching on the Sacraments, he continues : 

" Therefore I do here in the sight of God make profession 
of that faith in which I have always lived, and hope to die 

1 Chamberlain to Carleton, May 27th, 1612 {Court and Times of 
James I., I. 169). See also Winwood, III. 367, 368. 

2 Brewer, p. 154. 

P 2 



212 THE CECILS 

in, and fear not to be judged at that great account of all 
flesh, and purpose to leave it behind me, as full of life and 
necessary fruit as I can, for the direction of my children, 
as their best patrimony, and for the satisfaction of the 
world as the truest account I can give for myself and my 
actions." 

His debts at the time of his death amounted 
to nearly £38,000, in spite of the fact that he had 
recently sold Canterbury Park for £12,000. On 
the other hand, he had lent to various friends 
sums amounting to some £16,500, and he gave 
directions in his w^ill that lands and woods should 
be sold to clear off his encumbrances. He also 
desired that a " fair monument " should be 
erected to his memory, and his son, the second 
Earl, carried out his wish. In 1618 he built the 
Salisbury Chapel on the north side of the chancel 
in Hatfield Church, and here, in the middle of 
the floor, is the monument to his father, in black 
and white marble. The Earl is lying in his robes 
on a flat slab, supported by figures of the four 
Cardinal Virtues, while below is a skeleton lying 
at full length.^ 

" Ease and pleasure quake to hear of death," 
said Salisbury to Sir Walter Cope in his last illness, 
" but my life, full of cares and miseries, desireth 
to be dissolved." It is impossible to doubt his 
sincerity in this pathetic utterance. He felt that 

1 Brewer gives a curious estimate, by Simon Basil, the surveyor, of 
what the work ought to cost, and of the material required. The cost 
of " sawing and carving " the six figures in white marble is estimated 
at ;/|6o apiece, while the two slabs of touchstone are to cost ;^6o, and 
the carriage of the tomb to Hatfield and erecting it £^o. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 213 

his power was passing from him. " As the case 
stands," wrote the observer whose letters throw 
so much hght on the doings of the Court/ " it 
was best that he gave over the world, for they 
say his friends fell from him apace, and some 
near about him, and howsoever he had fared with 
his health, it is verily thought, he would never 
have been himself again in power and credit. 
I never knew," he adds, " so great a man so soon 
and so generally censured, for men's tongues 
walk very liberally and freely, but how truly I 
know not." His death certainly let loose a 
flood of ill-natured gossip, which increased as 
time went on. " When great men die," wrote 
the Earl of Dorset to Sir T. Edmondes,^ " such 
is either their desert, or the malice of people, or 
both together, as commonly they are ill spoken 
of. And so is one that died but lately, more I 
think than ever any one was, and in more several 
kinds." And Chamberlain, writing again in July^ 
says : — 

" The memory of the late Lord Treasurer grows daily 
worse and worse, and more libels come as it were con- 
tinually, whether it be that practice and juggling come 
more and more to light, or that men love to follow the 
sway of the multitude. But it is certain that they who 
may best maintain it, have not forborne to say that he 
juggled with religion, with the King, Queen, their children, 
with nobility, parliament, with friends, foes, and generally 
with all. Some of his chaplains have been heard to oppose 

' Chamberlain to Carleton, May 27th, 1612 [Court and Times of 
James I., I. 169). 

^ June 22nd, 1612 {ibid., I. 179). 
* July 2nd [ibid., I. 180). 



214 THE CECILS 

themselves what they could in the pulpit against these 
scandalous speeches, but with Httle fruit." 

Even Bacon was not above publishing a new 
edition of his essays, " where," says Chamberlain, 
" in a chapter of ' Deformity ' the world takes 
note that he paints his httle cousin to the hfe." ^ 
It will be remembered that this very spiteful 
essay begins as follows : — 

" Deformed persons are commonly even with nature ; 
for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature ; 
being for the most part, as the Scripture saith, ' void of 
natural affection ' ; and so they have their revenge of 
nature. Certainly there is a consent between the body 
and the mind, and where nature erreth in the one, she 
ventureth in the other." 

When James asked Bacon for his opinion of 
Salisbury, he replied :— 

" Your Majesty hath lost a great subject and a good 
servant. But if I should praise him in propriety, I should 
say that he was a fit man to keep things from growing 
worse, but no very fit man to reduce things to be much 
better. For he loved to have the eyes of all Israel a little 
too much upon himself, and to have all business still 
under the hammer and like clay in the hands of the potter, 
to mould it as he thought good, so that he was more in 
operaiione than in ofere ; and though he had fine passages 
of action, yet the real conclusion came slowly on." ^ 

At another time Bacon described him as 
" doing little with much formality and protesta- 
tion," and (expressing the same idea in other 

1 To Carleton, December 17th, 1612 (Cotcrt and Times of James I., 
I. 214). 

2 Spedding, IV. 279. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 215 

words) accused him of "an artificial animating 
of the negative." ^ He reaHsed, of course, that 
James would welcome some disparagement of 
his late minister, being tired of his restraining 
influence. 

Salisbury's unpopularity at Court is, indeed, 
easily accounted for. Amid the general corrup- 
tion and venality, when all men were bent on 
their own advancement and profit, he alone 
went on his way with a single eye to the good 
of his King and country. The main source of 
patronage, he naturally incurred the hatred of 
all disappointed placemen. Moreover, his power 
and position earned him the envy of those who 
felt that they were entitled to share them. He 
was incapable of inspiring the almost universal 
reverence paid to his father, and he had not the 
strength or force of character to overcome the 
backbiting malevolence of his enemies. Courteous 
and affable as he was to all, he concealed his 
real feelings, so that even those who knew him 
well were often doubtful whether they under- 
stood him, and were suspicious in consequence. 

Though not in the front rank of statesmen, he 
was eminently the right man in the right place, 
and he succeeded where a more brilliant man 
would probably have failed. He lacked creative 
imagination, and initiated no great policy ; he 
left behind him no followers, being out of sympathy 
with the rising generation. But his skill as an 
administrator, his power of mastering details, his 

^ Spedding, IV. 371, 381. 



2i6 THE CECILS 

sound common sense, and his unwearied industry, 
made him invaluable to the King, at least during 
the first few years of his reign. 

Even Sir Anthony Welldon, who retails all the 
scurrilous gossip of the day, is bound to admit his 
fine qualities : — 

" The little great Secretary," he says, " died of a most 
loathsome disease, and remarkable, without house, with- 
out pity, without favour of that master that had raised 
him to so high an estate ; and yet must he have that 
right done him ... he had great parts, was very wise, 
full of honour and bounty, a great lover and rewarder of 
virtue and able parts in others, so they did not appear too 
high in place, or look too narrowly into his actions." ^ 

" He was plentiful in alms, charity, and good 
works," says Sir Walter Cope ; " full of honour 
and honest to his friends and no malicious 
persecutor of his enemies. He loved justice as 
his life, and the laws as his inheritance." 

One instance of his " good works " may be 
given. In December, 1608, he made an agree- 
ment with one Morrall of Enfield, who engaged, 
in consideration of a salary of £100 a year and 
a house rent free, to teach fifty poor persons " to 
be chosen by the Earl within the parish of Hat- 
field, in the art of clothing, weaving, spinning, 
carding, or any other suchlike commendable trade." 

Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden 
that Salisbury " never cared for any man longer 

^ " Court and Character of King James," in Secret History of the 
Court of James I., I. 324. The contemporary stories of the nature of 
his disease are refuted by the reports of his doctor. 



THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 217 

than he could make use of him." But this was 
not the general opinion. " The world saith you 
a passing good gentleman," writes Fulke Greville, 
" and one that will, after the old manner, do 
common courtesies to men who are never like to 
requite you." ^ 

It is remarkable to notice how after the Essex 
rebellion all the chief persons concerned turned 
to Cecil for help — especially the Countess of 
Essex, Lady Southampton, Lady Sandys, the 
Earl of Rutland, and Sir Henry Neville ; and the 
tone of their letters and the gratitude they express 
bear very strong testimony to his generosity and 
kindness of heart. His nieces — the Marchioness 
of Winchester, Lady Bridget Vere, Lady Hatton, 
Lady Tufton— write to him in the most affec- 
tionate terms ; his nephew, Edward, afterwards 
Viscount Wimbledon, acknowledges his constant 
support and favour ; and his " desolate, unfor- 
tunate aunt," as she is fond of calling herself, 
Lady Russell, pours forth all her complaints in 
endless letters, which, though amusing enough to 
read, must have sorely tried the patience of the 
hard-worked Secretary. 

But perhaps the best tribute to his character 
is to be found in the affection and trust which 
he inspired in his friends and colleagues. Making 
all allowance for the exuberance of language 
common at the time, it is impossible to believe 
that the man to whom such expressions as the 
following were addressed can have been the cold, 

1 October 17th, 1601 {Hatfield MSS., XI. 433) 



2i8 THE CECILS 

heartless and designing individual that some 
writers have imagined. Sir Edward Wotton 
writes on the occasion of Cecil's embassy to 
France, " My Lord Ambassador, only three words, 
I love, I honour you unfeignedly." " I will no 
longer live," says Lord Sheffield, " than I will 
deserve your love." And Sir Thomas Bodley 
writes, " Give me leave to protest, as I do very 
truly and sincerely, that I hold it for one of the 
greatest parts of the sweetness and comfort of 
my life, in my later years, that I know I may 
rely, when my need shall so require, upon your 
favour, which I beseech you, be not weary to 
continue still unto me." 

The best testimony of all is contained in the 
will of the Earl of Dorset, who left some jewels 
to Salisbury, 

" of whose excelling virtues and sweet conditions, so well 
known to me, in respect of our long communication by so 
many years in most true love and friendship together, I 
am desirous to leave some faithful remembrance in this 
my last will and testament, that since the living speech of 
my tongue when I am gone from hence must then cease 
and speak no more, that yet the living speech of my pen, 
which never dieth, may herein thus for ever testify and 
declare the same." 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SALISBURY LINE 

On the death of SaHsbury the poHtical talent 
of the family fell into abeyance, not to be revived 
for two hundred and fifty years. His only son, 
William, inherited his title, but little of his intelli- 
gence, and none of his practical capacity for 
affairs. He was born in 159 1, Queen Elizabeth 
acting as his godmother, and was educated at 
Sherborne School, and St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge. A weakly youth, of " lean, spare body," 
his studies were interrupted by his ill-health, and 
still more by his too indulgent father, who kept 
him at home on the slightest pretext. He was 
created a Knight of the Bath in January, 1605, 
and in the following August, on the occasion 
of the King's visit to Cambridge, both Lord 
Cranborne, as he was now styled, and his 
father, were granted the degree of M.A. On 
December ist, 1608, he was married very privately 
to Catherine, youngest daughter of Thomas 
Howard, Earl of Suffolk, and sister of the 
notorious Countess of Essex, and immediately 
after the wedding, went for a tour in France.^ 
He was again travelHng in France and Italy two 

1 He was between Montreuil and Abbeville on December 15th. 
Chamberlain to Carleton, December 23rd, 1608 {Court and Times of 
James I., I. 83). 



220 THE CECILS 

years later, attended by a great retinue, and in 
the course of his travels he visited the Court of 
Turin, where he was treated with great magnifi- 
cence by the Duke of Savoy. At Padua he fell 
ill of a violent fever, from which he made a very 
tedious recovery, and when the Duke of Florence 
offered to facilitate his journey by Bologna, he 
refused his aid, since Lord Salisbury was unwilling 
to incur foreign obligations.^ 

On his return to England, Cranborne attached 
himself to the Prince of Wales, bearing him 
attendance in tilting and other sports in which 
the Prince delighted, and " growing daily in his 
favour." ^ At the same time he contracted a 
warm friendship with his cousin. Sir Edward 
Cecil, who was also in favour with the Prince. 

In 1612, Cranborne succeeded to his father's 
title and estates, and was also appointed Lord 
Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. In the following year 
the birth of a daughter afforded an opportunity 
for the extravagant display in which he delighted. 
" About this day sevennight," wrote Chamberlain, 
" the Countess of Salisbury was brought to bed 
of a daughter and lies in very richly, for the 
hangings of her chamber being white satin, 
embroidered with gold (or silver) and pearl, is 
valued at ;£i4,ooo " ; ^ and the same gossip 
informs us that the " great christening " of the 

1 See Cal. S. P. Dom. ; also Sir H. Wotton's and Sir D. Carleton's 
letters. 

2 Chamberlain to Carleton, January 29th, 1612 [Cal. S. P. Dom.). 

^ Chamberlain to Mrs. Alice Carleton, February 14th, 1613 [Court 
and Times of James I., I. 222). 




WILLIAM, SECOND EARL OF SALISBURY, K.G. 



Vandvck 



THE SALISBURY LINE 221 

child took place in the chapel at Court, " whence 
the Queen, Prince Palatine, Lady Elizabeth's 
highness, and all the company conveyed it home, 
and went by water to the banquet." ^ 

We hear little of Lord Salisbury for the next 
few years, and may conclude that he was immersed 
in the affairs of his estate and of his rapidly growing 
family. His first son, James, was born in May, 
1616, but though " the King was his godfather 
in person and held him at the font all the while 
he was christening, and gave him the reversion 
of all his father's places and offices, yet all these 
favours could not prolong life," ^ and the child 
died in the following October. Another son, 
Charles (born, 1619), lived to have a large family 
in his turn, though, dying before his father, he 
did not come into the title. 

Salisbury continued to enjoy the Royal favour, 
and was created a K.G. by James, in 1624. Two 
years later he was admitted by Charles to the 
Privy Council, and he also received a promise of 
the reversion of the office of Master of the Court 
of Wards, held so long by his father and grand- 
father, and now administered by Sir R. Naunton.^ 
But when the latter resigned in 1635, he was 
passed over and Lord Cottington was selected 
for the post. " Salisbury," says Gardiner, " was 
notoriously incompetent to fulfil the duties of 

1 Court and Times of James I., I. 229. 

2 Chamberlain to Carleton, November 9th, 1616 [ibid., I. 436). 

^ July 27th, 1630 {Cal. S. P. Dom.). The promise is qualified by 
the reservation: " unless, in the meantime, the King shall take some 
other pccasion to express his esteem for him." 



222 THE CECILS 

any office calling for the exercise of the most 
ordinary ability, and a letter drawn up by 
Cottington himself informed him that, though 
his Majesty would not forget him, he would not 
make him Master of the Wards." ^ 

This severe judgment appears to be exaggerated. 
As a matter of fact, it had been arranged several 
years before that Cottington should receive the 
Mastership of the Wards, while Naunton was to 
be " satisfied with a sum of money," and 
Salisbury was to succeed to the posts held by his 
father-in-law. Lord Suffolk, whose death was 
shortly expected. As, however, the latter 
expectation was not fulfilled, the plan fell 
through.^ Salisbury now received the post of 
Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners, which he 
filled for eight years. 

On the outbreak of war with the Scots, in 
1639, Salisbury joined the King's forces, and was 
one of the commissioners appointed to carry on 
the negotiations with the Covenanters, which 
resulted in the Treaty of Berwick. After this 
unsatisfactory peace had been signed, the Scots 
published a paper containing " sundry strange 
glosses and interpretations upon the Articles of 
Pacification," and at the same time it was 
reported that several of the English com- 
missioners, including Lord Salisbury, had seen 
and approved of this paper and had distributed 



1 History, VIII. 70 ; Cal. S. P. Dom. ; Charles /., VII. 529. 

2 W. Murray to Sir Henry Vane, December i8th, 1631 {Cal. S. P. 

Do7n.). 



THE SALISBURY LINE 223 

it in England. The accusation stung the Earl to 
the quick. " The report is so false," he writes 
to Windebank, " as there can be no man either 
of honour or honesty that dare avow any such 
thing. ... I am infinitely sensible of this aspersion 
so falsely laid upon me, and did not my conscience 
tell me how clear I am, I should not have a quiet 
hour, especially if any such report should come 
to his Majesty, who I know is so just as he will 
not easily believe that I am guilty of so much 
want of duty, either to know or to publish any- 
thing to his disservice : my actions, past and to 
come, have and shall ever justify the contrary." 
The matter coming to the knowledge of the 
King, the accused lords were able, without diffi- 
culty, to clear themselves of the " scandalous 
charge," and the " false and seditious paper " 
was damned by proclamation and publicly burnt 
by the hangman.^ 

The value of Salisbury's protestations of 
loyalty was soon to be proved. In September, 
1640, he was one of the fifteen noblemen, " all 
popular men," chosen by the King as com- 
missioners to treat with the Scots at Ripon.^ 
After this he sat on the fence, afraid to throw 
in his lot completely with either party. His 
sympathies seem always to have been with the 
Parliament, and that his abilities were not so 
negligible as Gardiner supposes is proved by the 
fact that the Lords, in December, 1641, resolved 

1 Cal. S. P. Dom. ; Charles I., XIV. 294, 402, 432, etc. 
^ Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, ed. 1826, I. 274, 279. 



224 THE CECILS 

to recommend him as Lord Treasurer. Shortly 
afterwards he incurred their displeasure by 
joining the King at York, and " at that 
distance," says Clarendon, " seemed to have 
recovered some courage, and concurred in all 
councils which were taken to undeceive the 
people and to make the proceedings of the 
Parliament odious to all the world." 

He was one of those who signed the declaration 
that the King had no intention of making war 
on Parliament, in June, 1642 ; but having done 
so, he suddenly became frightened and fled back 
to London, " and never after denied to do any- 
thing that was required of him." He became 
an obedient servant of Parliament, and was 
prominent in its councils. He was one of the 
commissioners sent to treat with the King at 
Oxford in 1643, at Uxbridge in 1645, and at 
Newport in 1648 ; he was a member of the 
Assembly of Divines, and in 1645 he was voted 
a marquessate. From July to October, 1646, 
he was a Commissioner of the Great Seal, and 
in 1649, after the King's death, a member of 
the Council of State. 

Clarendon's character of Lord Salisbury has 
often been quoted, but it must be remembered 
that the fact that the Earl adopted the popular 
side was enough to prejudice the Royalist historian 
against him. 

" The Earl of Salisbury," he says, " had been born and 
bred in Court and had the advantage of a descent from a 
father and grandfather who had been very wise men, and 



THE SALISBURY LINE 225 

great ministers of State in the eyes of Christendom : 
whose wisdom and virtues died with them, and their 
children only inherited their titles. He had been admitted 
of the Council to King James ; from which time he con- 
tinued so obsequious to the Court, that he never failed 
in over-acting all that he was required to do. No act of 
power was ever proposed, which he did not advance, and 
execute his part with the utmost rigour. No man so great 
a tyrant in his country, or was less swayed by any motives 
of justice or honour. He was a man of no words, except 
in hunting and hawking, in which he only knew how to 
behave himself. In matters of State and council he 
always concurred in what was proposed by the King and 
cancelled and repaired all those transgressions, by con- 
curring in all that was proposed against him, as soon as 
any such propositions were made." 

After describing how he joined the King at 
York and returned in haste to London, he 
proceeds : — 

" And when the war was ended, and Cromwell had put 
down the House of Peers, he got himself to be chosen a 
member of the House of Commons ; and sat with them, as 
of their own body ; and was esteemed accordingly. In 
a word, he became so despicable to all men, that he will 
hardly enjoy the ease which Seneca bequeathed him : 
His egregiis majorihus ortus est, qualiscimque est, stib 
umbra suonim lateat ; ut loca sordida repercussa sole illus- 
trantur, ita inertes majorum suorum luce resplendeant." ^ 

" My simple Lord Salisbury," as Pepys calls 
him, lived to see the birth of his great-grandson, 
afterwards the fourth Earl, and died in 1668 at 
the ripe age of seventy-seven. He had a large 
family, eight sons and five daughters in all. Of 

^ History of the Rebellion, ed. 1826, III. 559. 

C. Q 



226 THE CECILS 

his sons, Charles, Viscount Cranborne (1619 — 
1660) was made a Knight of the Bath at the 
Coronation of Charles I., and married Diana 
Maxwell, daughter and co-heir of James Maxwell, 
Earl of Dirletoun, and younger sister of the 
Duchess of Hamilton. She received from her father 
a portion of £18,000, £4,000 in jewels, £800 a year 
in land in England, and half his Scottish land. 
" A great portion ! " exclaims a contemporary, 
" But I hate marriages made for money, and 
they have lost their reputation, both son and 
father, for this high avariciousness." ^ Lord 
Cranborne sat in the Long Parliament, as did 
two of his brothers, Robert and Algernon. Another 
brother, William, of Tewin, Hertfordshire, was 
Governor of the garrisons of Kilmore and London- 
derry, and Colonel of the Battleaxe Guard in 
the City of DubHn. Of their sisters, Anne, the 
eldest, married Algernon Percy, Earl of Northum- 
berland.^ " Fortune," says Osborne, " did allot 
Lord Percy a wife out of the family of Salisbury, 
whose blood the father said would not mingle in 
a basin, so averse was he from it." Anne does 
not appear to have been very amiable, if we may 
judge from the wish expressed by Lord Conway, 
" that her child may have a face like hers, but 
all parts like his father's." ^ Conway was, how- 
ever, a devoted admirer of the second sister, 

1 George Garrard to Lord Conway, March 28th, 1639 (Cal. S. P. 
Dom.). 

2 Writing to Dorchester to announce the birth of their first child 
Salisbury remarks that " his daughter is a mother of a female animal 
and himself a grandfather," August i6th, 1630 {ibid.). 

* Garrard to Conway, September iSth, 1635 {ibid.). 



THE SALISBURY LINE 227 

Elizabeth, of whom he wrote that he " hopes 
he may find his faith and zeal in her service 
rewarded with the gracious look that makes the 
devils forget Hell, and the angels Heaven." ^ 
Elizabeth married William Cavendish, Earl of 
Devonshire, and dying in i68g, was buried in 
Henry VI I. 's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. 
Their daughter, Anne, married the fifth Earl of 
Exeter (see p. 133), and their son was the first 
Duke of Devonshire. A third sister, Catherine, 
married Philip Sidney, afterwards third Earl of 
Leicester. 

The second Earl of Salisbury was succeeded 
by his grandson, James,"" son of Charles, Lord 
Cranborne. Bom in 1648, he travelled in France 
with his brother, Robert ; finished his education 
at St. John's College, Cambridge ; served on 
board the Royal Charles against the Dutch at 
the age of eighteen ; and, in 1668, was member 
of Parliament for Hertfordshire. In the same 
year he succeeded to the peerage. A contem- 
porary at Cambridge recorded his conviction 
that " he was for loyalty, generosity and affa- 
bility, most likely to advance the ancient and 
noble name of Cecil to the utmost period of 
glory," ^ but this sanguine expectation was 
disappointed, for the third Earl did little to 
distinguish himself. A staunch supporter of 
Buckingham and Shaftesbury, he was sent to 

1 Conway to Garrard, May 20th, 1640 {Cal. S. P. Dom.). 

2 From this time onwards the eldest son has always borne the name 
of James. 

" Barnes, Hist, of Edward III., p. 75, quoted by Collins. 

Q2 



228 THE CECILS 

the Tower with those lords in February, 1677, 
for maintaining that the Parhament, which had 
been prorogued for nearly fifteen months, was 
in fact dissolved, and demanding that a new 
Parliament should be called. In June he was 
allowed to go to Hatfield, " his health being 
much impaired, and his wife being near her 
confinement," and at the end of July, being loth 
to return to the Tower, he made his submission 
and was discharged.^ In January, 1679, ^^ was 
sworn of the Privy Council, and in August, 
1680, received the Garter. 

In spite of these marks of Royal favour, he 
continued his opposition to the King. He was 
a zealous opponent of the Duke of York's succes- 
sion, and carried his hostility to that Prince so 
far as to treat him on one occasion with gross 
inciviHty. On October 27th, 1679, the Duke and 
Duchess, with the Princess Anne, their daughter, 
set out from London for Scotland, intending to 
sleep the first night at Hatfield. Arrived there, 
however, they found no preparations made for 
their reception, and Lord Salisbury, instead of 
being at home to welcome his guests, sent a 
message from Quickswood, " to excuse his not 
coming to wait upon his Royal Highness, for 
that he had been let blood five days before." 
There was no food or drink in the house, except 
" two does upon the table, and one barrel of 
small beer " ; no fires were hghted, though a 
pile of faggots had been considerately left behind. 

1 Cal. S. P. Dom. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 229 

Even the candlesticks had been taken away, and 
the Duke's servants were obUged to borrow some 
in the town, and to buy candles and all else that 
was necessary. Some of the neighbouring gentry 
came to the rescue and entertained members of 
the suite, but the Duke and Duchess had to put 
up with the greatest discomfort. By way of 
showing his contempt for such behaviour, the 
Duke gave orders that all that was consumed of 
what was in the house should be paid for, and 
the depth of degradation was reached when Salis- 
bury's steward accepted payment for the pile of 
faggots, and eight shillings for the barrel of beer.^ 
In January, 1681, when the King dissolved 
Parliament, as a result of the action of the 
Commons after the Exclusion Bill had been 
thrown out by the Lords, Salisbury, at a meeting 
of the Privy Council, spoke strongly against the 
dissolution, and, " not prevailing, desired his 
Majesty's leave to be excused his attendance 
in Council, which his Majesty granted accord- 
ingly." ^ After this act of independence we 
hear no more of his public life. In August, 
1682, he went to France with his wife, who had 
been ordered to " take the waters " for the 
recovery of her health ; but " at Paris she was 
taken ill and died, to the great grief of his 
lordship."^ The Earl survived her a few months 
only, and died in May, 1683, aged thirty-five. 



1 Letters of Algernon Sidney to Henry Savile, 1742, pp. 155, 156. 
" Luttrell's Diary, I. 64. 
' Ibid., I. 211, 215. 



230 THE CECILS 

By his wife, Margaret, daughter of the eighth 
Earl of Rutland, Salisbury had five sons and five 
daughters. His eldest son, James, succeeded as 
fourth Earl, at the age of eighteen. One of his 
first acts was to wait on his Majesty and " beg 
his pardon for his father's being concerned in 
any parts against his Majesty's interest." ^ 

In the same year, 1683, he married Frances 
Bennet, daughter and co-heir of Simon Bennet, 
of Bechampton ; but as she was not of age, 
being indeed, as we are told, " about thirteen 
years old," she forfeited most of her fortune. 
He afterwards travelled in France and Italy, 
and on his return was appointed High Steward 
of Hertford, colonel of a regiment of horse, 
and Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James II. 
In 1688 he was one of those who, judging from 
the King's favour to the Catholics that the 
moment was favourable, turned Papist. " Of the 
renegades," says Macaulay, " the Earls of Peter- 
borough and Salisbury were the highest in rank, 
but were also the lowest in intellect ; for Salisbury 
had always been an idiot, and Peterborough had 
long been a dotard." Alas ! the nemesis which 
waits on opportunism overtook him before he 
had enjoyed the exercise of his new religion for 
more than a few months. The rumour of the 
coming of the Prince of Orange threw him into 
a deplorable state of anxiety and trepidation. 
About every hour he would send his men to 
Whitehall to hear the news. " Then, when he 

i_^ Luttrell, I. 269. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 231 

heard that the Prince was coming and landed, 
and how he was received, he lamented sadly, 
and curst and damned all about him, crying, 
' O God ! O God ! O God ! I turn'd too soon, 
I turn'd too soon.' " ^ 

In December the grand jury of Middlesex 
found a bill of high treason against him for turning 
Papist, " and presented his troop for a nuisance 
in riding the streets armed, contrary to law." 
He endeavoured to escape with Lord Peterborough, 
but they were seized in Kent, and committed to 
the Tower. In the following October, the two 
Earls were impeached by the Commons and sent 
back to the Tower, where they remained until 
October, i6go, when, having petitioned the House 
of Lords, they were brought before the bar of 
that House and admitted to bail, each in two 
sureties of £5,000 apiece.^ 

Meanwhile, Salisbury had sent two of his 
younger brothers, William and Charles, to "a 
popish seminary " in Paris, and a writ de homine 
replegiando had been brought against him in 
June, 1689, "to compel him to fetch them home. 
This order he seems to have evaded, for soon 
after his release from the Tower, news came that 
the two youths " fell out in their bed and got up 
in their shirts and fought desperately before they 
could be parted, both of them much wounded." ^ 
The result of this quarrel was more serious 
than at first appeared, for William died of his 

1 De la Pvyme's Diary (Surtees Society), p. 94. 

2 Luttrell, I. 483, 487, II. 113. 
s Ibid., II. 185. 



232 THE CECILS 

injuries.^ Charles also met with a sad end, being set 
upon in the streets of Rome and murdered, in 1702. 

The Earl's misfortunes were not yet at an end, 
for in 1692 he became involved, through no 
fault of his own, in a charge of conspiracy to 
restore James II., and was again committed to 
the Tower. It was, however, soon discovered 
that the document to which his signature and 
those of Marlborough, Cornbury, Bancroft and 
Sprat were appended was a forgery drawn up 
by Robert Young, of whose enterprising career 
Macaulay has given an interesting account, and 
the incriminated persons were released. 

Lord Salisbury died in October, 1694, at the 
age of twenty-nine, leaving a son about three 
years old to succeed him in his title and estates. 
Macaulay sums him up in these words : " Salisbury 
was foolish to a proverb. His figure was so 
bloated by sensual indulgence as to be almost 
incapable of moving, and this sluggish body was 
the abode of an equally sluggish mind." To 
which repulsive portrait we may append the 
following verses, fixed to his door in 1686, which 
serve to show what the populace thought of him. 

" If Cecil the wise 
From his grave should arise 
And see this fat beast in his place, 
He would take him from Mass 
And turn him to grass, 
And swear he was none of his race." ^ 

1 Cal. S. P. Doni., March 17th, 1691. 

"* De la Pryme's Diary, p. 94. Slightly different versions are given 
in Poems on Affairs of State, Part II. 1697 and 1716. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 233 

James Cecil, the fifth Earl (1691 — 1728), was 
a good-natured nonentity, addicted to low 
pleasures. He was ruled by his capable wife, 
Anne Tufton, daughter and co-heir of the 
Earl of Thanet, and herself a descendant of Lord 
Burghley.^ Their son, the sixth Earl (1713 — 
1780), inherited his father's evil proclivities, and 
though he is said to have been unmercifully 
beaten by his mother in his youth,^ this discipline 
proved ineffectual, and he brought ridicule and 
contempt, if not disgrace, on the name of Cecil. 
Deserting Hatfield, he took up his residence at 
Quickswood, near Baldock, where he was able 
to indulge in the congenial society of his 
inferiors. 

One of his exploits was to drive the Hatfield 
coach, a proceeding which excited considerable 
scandal. Pope alludes to him in the Dunciad : ^ 

From stage to stage the licensed Earl may run. 
Paired with his fellow-charioteer the Sun. 

And Hogarth, in his picture of " Night," 
commemorates the upset of the " Salisbury Flying 
Coach " — said to have been a not unusual incident 
when his lordship was driving. In 1744 he 
further shocked society by marrying Ehzabeth 
Keet, a lady of inferior rank, whose brother 
became Rector of Hatfield. Mrs. Delany makes 

1 Her great grandmother was Frances Cecil, daughter of the first 
Earl of Exeter. Through this marriage the dormant Barony of Ogle 
came into the family. 

2 J. J. Antrobus, Hatfield : Some Memories of its Past, p. 86. 

s Book IV., lines 588, 589 ; and see note thereon in Elwin and 
Courthope's edition. 



234 THE CECILS 

the following caustic comment on the occa- 
sion : — 

" My Lord Salisbury's match did not surprise me ; his 
steward, perhaps, may be a gentleman of as good a family 
as himself, and a woman of rank and knowledge of the 
world would not have accepted of a coachman, although 
he was a feer of the realm ! " ^ 

But though Elizabeth may not have been the 
social equal of her husband, she was a sensible, 
virtuous woman, and a good mother. For two 
years after their marriage they lived at Hatfield ; 
then the Earl returned to his haunts at Quicks- 
wood, while his wife lived, for the most part, 
quietly in London, attending to the education of 
her children.^ 

During this time Hatfield had fallen into great 
disrepair, and the Earl was so devoid of family 
feeling that he even disposed of all the family 
plate. ^ This was a loss which could not be 
repaired ; but it fell to the lot of his son and 
successor, not only to restore Hatfield to its 
former splendour, but also to retrieve the honour 
and the fortunes of the family. 

" As the ashes of the Cecils are rekindling, perhaps a 
Phoenix may arise," wrote Horace Walpole,^ " I remember 
Lord Hervey saying that everything degenerated and 
dwindled, and instancing the last Lord Salisbury, who, he 
said, was the cucumber of Burleigh [read Hatfield]. 
Well, then, as matters, when they can go no lower, may 
mount again, who knows what may happen. Madam ? " 

^ Mrs. Delany to Mrs. Dewes, March 2nd, 1745. 

' Antrobiis, Hatfield, pp. 92, 93. 

3 Ibid., p. 92. 

* Letters, Cunningham's edition, IX. 30, November i6th, 1785. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 235 

Born in 1748, James Cecil, the seventh Earl, 
was constituted Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire 
at the age of twenty- three, while still Lord 
Cranborne, and continued to hold that position 
until his death. For forty years he was colonel 
of the Herts Militia, and he sat in Parliament 
as member for Great Bedwyn from 1774 to 1780, 
when he was returned for Launceston, In the 
same year he was appointed Treasurer of the 
Household, and on succeeding to the title, he was 
sworn of the Privy Council. Three years later 
he was made Lord Chamberlain, and being a 
great favourite with George III. he retained this 
ofhce for upwards of twenty years (1783 — 1804). 
In this capacity he earned the ill-will of managers 
of the Opera, by giving free passes wholesale to 
" servants, it is supposed, Hertfordshire voters 
eke," to the value of £400 in one season ; and 
even went so far as to claim a similar right of dis- 
tributing passes for his heirs and assigns for ever.^ 

In 1773 Lord Salisbury married Lady Mary 
Amelia Hill, daughter of the Marquess of Down- 
shire, a woman of remarkable character and 
abilities. They were both staunch supporters of 
Pitt, and in the famous Westminster election of 
1784, when the Duchess of Devonshire, on behalf 
of the Whigs, was working strenuously to secure 
the return of Fox, the Court party put forward 
the Countess of Salisbury to counteract her 
influence. 

1 Walpole's Letters, Cunningham's edition, 1891, IX. 299, March 
27th, 1 791. 



236 THE CECILS 

" In grace of person and demeanour," says Wraxall in 
his Diary, "no less than in mental attainments, Lady 
Salisbury yielded to few females of the Court of George III. 
But she wanted, nevertheless, two qualities eminently 
contributing to success in such a struggle, both of which 
met in her political rival. The first of these was youth, 
the Duchess numbering scarcely twenty-six years, while 
the Countess had nearly completed thirty-four. The 
Duchess of Devonshire never seemed to be conscious of 
her rank : Lady Salisbury ceased not for an instant to 
remember and to compel others to recollect it. Nor did 
the effects fail to correspond with the moral causes thus 
put into action. Every day augmenting Fox's majority, 
it appeared that on the i6th of May, to which period the 
contest was protracted, he stood 235 votes above Sir 
Cecil [Wray] on the books of the poll." 

In 1789 the Earl was advanced to the rank 
of Marquess,^ and four years later was invested 
with the Order of the Garter. It is characteristic 
of the Marchioness that she looked upon this 
honour as hers, and immediately had herself painted 
by Cosway, decked with the insignia of the Order. 

Lord Salisbury filled no more offices except 
a minor one, that of Joint Postmaster-General 
in the Ministry of 1816, but he played his part 
with dignity and distinction, and George Ticknor, 
who saw him in 18 19, describes him as " seventy 
years old and well preserved, and a specimen of 
the gentleman of the last generation, with easy 
elegant manners, and a proud, graceful courtesy." ^ 

' On this occasion the King is reported to have said " Now, my Lord, 
I trust you will be an English Marquess, and not a French Marquis." 
Sir M. Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, June 21st, 1898. 

2 Life of George Ticknor, I. 268. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 237 

He died in 1823, 3,t the age of seventy-five, his 
wife surviving him by twelve years. 

" Old Sarum," as she was irreverently called, 
remained to the last one of the chief leaders of 
society. Her " assemblies " were said to be the 
best of their class in London, and the hostess, a 
typical " great lady " of the old school, with her 
fine figure and courtly manners, could not fail 
to be the centre of attraction. For nearly half 
a century her Sunday parties and suppers in 
Arhngton Street were frequented by all the 
most distinguished society in London. To these 
parties no cards of invitation were sent out. 
" It was always ' Come to me on Sunday,' to 
those whom she met in the preceding week, and 
all the young aspirants were anxious to attract 
her notice." ^ 

At one of her parties at Hatfield she had the 
misfortune to be knocked down by some of the 
dancers, whereupon a wit, said to have been 
Lord Lytton, celebrated the occasion in the 
following verses : — 

" Conservatives at Hatfield House 
Have grown quite harum-scarum ; 
For Radicals could do no more 
Than overturn Old Sarum." 

To the last she adhered to the state of her 
early days, going to Court in a sedan chair with 
magnificent liveries, and driving in the park in 
a phaeton with four black ponies. Here is a 

1 Raikes' Diary, December and, 1S35. 



238 THE CECILS 

picture of her drawn by Creevey on the occasion 
of a visit of the Dowager to Stoke in 1828 : — 

" Old Salisbury arrived yesterday ... in her accus- 
tomed manner, in a phaeton drawn by four long-tail black 
Flanders mares. She driving the wheel horses and a 
postilion on the leaders with two outriders on correspond- 
ing longtail blacks. Her man and maid were in her chaise 
behind, her groom and saddle horses arrived some time 
after her. It is impossible to do justice to the antiquity 
of her face. If as alleged she is only 74 years old [she 
was ']']'], it is the most cracked or rather furrowed piece of 
mosaic you ever saw ; but her dress, in the colours of it at 
least, is absolutely infantine. ... I wish you just saw 
her as I do now. She thinks she is alone, and I am writing 
at the end of the adjoining room, the folding doors being 
open. She is reclining on a sofa, reading the Edinburgh 
Review, without spectacles or glass of any kind. Her 
dress is white muslin, properly loaded with garniture, and 
she has just put off a very large bonnet, profusely gifted 
with bright lilac ribbons, leaving on her head a very nice 
lace cap, not less adorned with the brightest yellow 
ribbons." 

But it was not only as a society leader that 
Lady Salisbury was famous. She achieved 
perhaps even greater renown in the hunting field. 
In early life she hunted with the Quorn hounds, 
which belonged to the celebrated Hugh Meynell, 
of Quomdon Hall. In those days foxhunting 
was in its infancy, and she was one of the first 
English ladies to devote herself to the sport. 
In 1793 she became Mistress of the Hertfordshire 
Hounds — called the Hatfield Hounds during her 
reign — and hunted with them regularly until her 



THE SALISBURY LINE 239 

seventy-eighth year, clad in sky-blue habit with 
black velvet collar and cuffs and a jockey cap, 
the uniform of the hunt. Many tales are told 
of her exploits in the field. Thus, in the Sporting 
Magazine for March, 1795, there is an account of 
her triumphs in a great run of two hours and a 
half. " Out of a field of four score," says her 
enthusiastic chronicler, " her ladyship soon gave 
honest Daniel the go-by ; pressed Mr. Hale neck 
and neck, soon blowed the whipper-in ; and 
continued, indeed, throughout the whole of the 
chase, to be nearest the brush." ^ 

In her last years she is said to have been tied 
into the saddle, and when she became too blind 
to see the fences, a groom would lead her horse, 
and at the critical moment would shout, " Damn 
you, my lady, jump ! " ^ Even when she was 
obliged to give up following foxhounds, she said 
she thought she was good enough to hunt with 
the harriers.^ 

She was game to the end. In 1833, two years 
before her death, she is reported as " more 
youthful than ever," and as about to go to 
the Berkhamsted Ball, " which she attends 
annually." * An amusing story is told of her in 
the following year by the Duchesse de Dino ^ : — 

" Last Sunday she was at church, a rare thing with her, 
and the preacher, speaking of the Fall, observed that 

1 Quoted by the Duke of Beaufort, in Hunting, p. 15. 

2 Antrobus, Hatfield, p. 96. 

^ See Victoria County History, Hertfordshire, I. 349. 

^ Lady Louisa Molyneux to Creevey, October 30th, 1833. 

^ Memoirs, May ist, 1834. 



240 THE CECILS 

Adam excusing himself had cried out, ' Lord, the woman 
tempted me.' At this quotation Lady Sahsbury, who 
appeared not to have heard of the incident before, jumped 
up in her seat, saying, ' Shabby fellow indeed ! ' " 

Her fate was a tragic one. On Thursday, 
November 26th, 1835, she travelled to Hatfield 
to spend Christmas with her son, as was her 
custom. On the following evening she retired 
to her dressing-room at five o'clock, and a few 
minutes later her maid left her writing letters 
by the light of three candles. She was never 
seen again. Soon afterwards the household was 
attracted by the smell of fire and endeavoured 
to enter the room, but already the flames had 
attained such a hold that entrance was impossible, 
and before they were finally extinguished at 
eleven o'clock at night, the whole of the west 
wing was burnt out, while of the Dowager 
Marchioness nothing remained but a few charred 
bones. 

She left one son, the second Marquess, and 
two daughters, of whom the elder, Lady Georgiana, 
married Sir Henry Wellesley, afterwards Lord 
Cowley, a brother of the Duke of Wellington, 
while the younger. Lady Emily, made a less 
fortunate marriage with the Marquess of West- 
meath, from whom she was afterwards separated. 

The second Marquess of Salisbury had a long 
and honourable career. On leaving Oxford, he 
proceeded to stand for Hertford at the General 
Election of 1812, much to the indignation of 
Mr. Calvert, who had represented the borough 




Reynolds 
MARY AMELIA, WIFE OF JAMES, FIRST MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 



THE SALISBURY LINE 241 

for many years. " I feel very anxious," wrote 
Mrs. Calvert,^ " and we all abominate that 
miserable little animal, Lord Cranborne, for giving 
all this trouble and expense." However, he came 
out at the bottom of the poll, and took refuge 
at Weymouth, which he represented from 1813 
to 1817. He then succeeded in winning Hertford, 
and sat for that borough as a supporter of 
Lord Liverpool until the death of his father in 

1823. 

In 1821 Lord Cranborne married Frances Mary, 
daughter and heir of Bamber Gascoyne, of 
Childwell Hall, near Liverpool, and assumed, 
by Royal licence, the name of Gascoyne, calling 
himself Gascoyne-Cecil. For ten years (18 18 — 
1827) he acted as Commissioner for Indian affairs, 
and in 1826 he was admitted to the Privy Council. 
For many years after his accession to the title 
he devoted himself to the management of his 
estates and to local affairs. With greater wisdom 
than was shown by his kinsman of Exeter, when 
he saw that the railway was coming, in 1850, he 
contrived that it should pass his very gates, and 
at the same time he succeeded in having the Great 
North Road diverted to its present situation, thus 
easing the traffic, much to the benefit of Hatfield.^ 
He was a keen agriculturist, and an active 
magistrate, and succeeded his father as Colonel of 
the Herts Militia, and High Steward of Hertford. 

1 September 27th, 1812. An Irish Beauty of the Regency, edited by- 
Mrs. Warrene Blake. 

2 Antrobus, Hatfield, p. 100. 

C. R 



242 THE CECILS 

Later in life he was Lieut. -Colonel of the South 
Herts Yeomanry. 

At the Coronation of William IV., in 1831, 
Lord Salisbury was one of the trainbearers, and 
he afterwards told an amusing story in connection 
with the ceremony. The great weight of the 
robes made each of the trainbearers perspire 
profusely, and someone who had been near the 
King in the Abbey remarked, in the course of 
conversation on the subject, that his Majesty 
appeared to suffer equally. " Ah," said Lord 
Salisbury, " the King had an hour's rest and 
freedom from his robes ; for after the Coronation 
he retired for a time before he left the Abbey, 

and Lord , going into the room which had 

been fitted up as a dressing room, found the 
King walking up and down in a state of nudity, 
but with the crown on his head." ^ 

After the tragic death of his mother. Lord 
Salisbury not only rebuilt the burnt west wing of 
Hatfield, but also effected great alterations at 
Salisbury House. To commemorate the latter, 
he gave a most brilliant party, at which the 
Duke of Wellington, Peel, and others were present. 
" Such a revolution ! " says Disraeli, who made 
his first acquaintance with Lady Salisbury on 
this occasion.^ " There is not a vestige of ancient 
interior ; even the staircase is entirely new and 
newly placed ; " and Lord Ellesmere, who was also 
among the guests, states that the walls were 

1 Diary of Richard Redgrave, January i8th, 1868. 

2 Letters to his Family, February, 1838. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 243 

still damp, and records his belief that Lady 
Salisbury " caught the illness off them of which 
she died."^ 

Whether this is true or not, Lady Salisbury 
died eighteen months later (October, 1839). She 
was a woman of great charm and more than 
ordinary ability, and left behind her a large 
circle of friends among the most distinguished 
people of the day. Of them the chief was the 
Duke of Wellington, who placed the utmost 
confidence in her, and had looked to her for many 
years for help and advice in all his difficulties.^ 
After her death he cultivated a great affec- 
tion for her daughter. Lady Blanche, to whose 
eldest son, Mr. Arthur Balfour, he acted as 
godfather.^ 

After his wife's death, the Marquess brought up 
his daughters with stern discipline. " It is told of 
him that he would return from the House of 
Lords in the middle of the night, and at his 
summons, ' Get up, girls ; we're going to Hat- 
field,' his daughters had to be out of bed and 
ready for the journey with the least possible 
delay." Both as regards their education and 
their physical development they were brought 
up like boys, and they became skilled and fearless 
horsewomen. Indeed, Lady Mildred was, in later 

1 Personal Reminiscences of the Duke of Wellington, pp. 95, 96. 

2 Many extracts from her Journals and Correspondence (preserved 
at Hatfield) are given in Sir Herbert Maxwell's Life of Wellington. It 
is to be hoped that the^r may one day be published in full. 

^ See Lady Blanche Balfour : A Reminiscence, by the Rev. James 
Robertson. She married James Maitland Balfour of Whittingehame. 

R 2 



244 THE CECILS 

years, declared by Rarey, the American horse- 
tamer, to be the best lady whip in England/ 

In 1847 Lord Salisbury married Lady Mary 
Catherine, second daughter of Earl de la Warr, 
he being then fifty-six and she twenty- three. 
Disraeli, who was present at a Ball at Hatfield, 
" a splendid place in the highest state of 
renovation," four years later, speaks of Lady 
Salisbury as "an admirable hostess and a very 
pleasing woman ; great simplicity, quite a Sack- 
ville, with four most beautiful young children — 
a. boy just like a young Cantelupe." ^ 

Another visitor, Richard Redgrave, gives a 
pleasant picture of these children, and of family 
life at Hatfield a few years later. Among the 
guests was Lord Chelmsford, who had just been 
made Lord Chancellor. 

" There is a grand baronial style of living kept up at 
Hatfield. Prayers are said in the chapel every morning 
by the Chaplain. Dinner takes place in the old Eliza- 
bethan hall. The band of the militia, of which the 
Marquis is Colonel, plays during the meal in an outer 
apartment. Each lady, as she passes into the dining 
hall, is presented with a handsome bouquet, in a neat 
little wicker holder. At breakfast, one morning, the 
youngest child, three years old, came in to see the 
Marchioness. She said to the baby, ' This is the Lord 
Chancellor ; won't you speak to him ? won't you say 
" How do you do. Lord Chancellor " ? ' ' No,' answered the 
child, ' I shall call him " Chance." ' ' Very good,' said Lord 

K 1 Lady Blanche Balfoiir : A Reminiscence. Lady Mildred married 
Alexander Beresford-Hope, M.P. for Cambridge University. 
2 Disraeli's Coryespondence, December loth, 1S51. 



THE SALISBURY LINE 245 

Chelmsford ; ' a very good name — it was indeed a 
chance.' 

" I thought it a very nice allusion to his long expecta- 
tion and almost unhoped for attainment of that honour. 
I was much pleased on the second evening with an elder 
boy of ten. He was not in the room when the other and 
younger children bade their mother good-night ; but as 
the company were about to proceed to the dining room, 
as we crossed the hall to enter it, the boy rushed from a 
side door, knelt, took up the skirt of her ladyship's robe, 
pressed it to his lips, and passed rapidly upstairs." ^ 

Lord Salisbury was appointed Lord Lieutenant 
of Middlesex in 1842, and in the same year he 
received the Garter. He joined Lord Derby's 
first ministry in 1852 as Lord Privy Seal, and 
his second ministry in 1858 — 9 as Lord President 
of the Council, but on each occasion the Govern- 
ment was so short-lived that his experience of 
Cabinet rank was but slight. He died in 1868, 
leaving two sons and two daughters by his first 
wife, and three sons and two daughters by his 
second. With the latter we are not concerned 
here. The two daughters of the first marriage, 
Lady Mildred Beresford-Hope, and Lady Blanche 
Balfour, have already been mentioned. The sons 
were Lord Robert, the third Marquess, and Lieut. - 
Colonel Lord Eustace Cecil, formerly Surveyor- 
General of the Ordnance (1874 — 1880), now 
Director of the Great Eastern Railway. An 
elder son, James, Lord Cranborne, lost his sight 
in early life and died unmarried in 1865. He 

1 Diary of Richard Redgrave, August 6th, 1858. 



246 THE CECILS 

wrote a volume of Biographies of Great Monarchs 
for young people, and published two series of 
historical essays. 

Two years after her husband's death, Lady 
Salisbury married the Earl of Derby. She died in 
1900, at the age of seventy-six. 



CHAPTER XII 

the third marquess of salisbury 

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne - Cecil, 
second son of the second Marquess of Salisbury and 
his first wife, was born at Hatfield on February 3rd, 
1830. He was educated at Eton and Christ 
Church, Oxford, and took his B.A. degree in 
1850, obtaining an " Honorary Fourth " in mathe- 
matics. After a visit to Australia, which kept 
him out of England for two years, he was 
elected a Fellow of All Souls' in 1853, and the 
same year he was returned for Parliament as 
member for Stamford in the Conservative interest. 
Having acted as Secretary and Treasurer of the 
Oxford Union, he had already had some practice 
in public speaking, and on April 7th, 1854, ^i^ 
made his maiden speech on the second reading 
of the Oxford University Bill, receiving a well- 
deserved compliment from Gladstone, who spoke 
of the young member whose " first efforts, rich 
with future promise, indicate that there still 
issue forth from the maternal bosom of the 
University men who, in the first days of their 
career, give earnest of what they may afterwards 
accomplish for their country." He made his 
mark by further speeches on educational matters 
and on foreign politics, and in July, 1855, vv^hen 



248 THE CECILS 

Roebuck moved his famous vote of censure, 
based on the report of the Sebastopol Committee, 
Lord Robert Cecil was chosen to second the 
" previous question," moved by General Peel. 
The Aberdeen Ministry, which was responsible 
for the mismanagement of the war, had been 
turned out of office six months before, and it 
was thought by a large section of the Opposition 
to be inopportune to press the vote of censure, 
since they were not prepared to take the respon- 
sibility of taking Palmerston's place and carrying 
on the war. The attitude adopted by Cecil was 
patriotic in the highest degree, and his action in 
opposing his own leaders displayed his charac- 
teristic independence of thought. General Peel's 
amendment was carried by a large majority, and 
thus the Aberdeen ministry, of whom Gladstone 
was one, escaped the " severe reprehension " of 
the House of Commons. 

At the General Election in 1857, Cecil was 
again returned for Stamford unopposed, and in 
the first session of the new Parliament he made 
his first attempt at constructive legislation by 
bringing in a measure to institute a system of 
voting at elections by means of voting papers 
distributed among the electors. This sensible 
proposal (adopted in 1861 for University voting) 
was withdrawn owing to Liberal opposition after 
a short debate. 

In the same year he married Georgina Caroline, 
daughter of Sir E. H. Alderson, Baron of the 
Exchequer, and afterwards a celebrated judge. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 249 

The marriage was not approved of by Lord 
Salisbury, who, indeed, seems to have cared 
Httle about his first family, concentrating all his 
affection on the children of his second wife. 
But it is not true that he marked his displeasure 
by cutting off supplies. Persistent stories to 
this effect were due, no doubt, to the fact that 
for many years Lord Robert Cecil increased his 
income by journalism, in which he was assisted 
by his clever wife. From 1857 to 1865 he con- 
tributed to the Saturday Review, founded by his 
brother-in-law, Beresford-Hope, but his most 
important essays were written for the Quarterly 
Review, of which, for several years, from April, 
i860, scarcely a number appeared without an 
article from his pen. These essays deal mainly 
with contemporary politics, both home and foreign, 
but include a few biographical articles, such as 
those on Castlereagh and Pitt, and one of a 
scientific nature, on photography. " Written with 
all the freedom which the traditional anonymity 
of the Quarterly Review guarantees," says the 
writer, who first made known to the public the 
extent of Lord Salisbury's contributions to that 
periodical,^ " these essays more truly portray 
the man than anything he said or did within the 
cramping limitations of parliamentary procedure, 
or under the restraining influence of party and 
ministerial responsibility. We have here not 

1 Quarterly Review, January, 1904. A full list of these articles, 
thirty-three in all, is given in the Diet. Nat, Biog., 2nd Supp. I. 343. 
Several have been reprinted, in two volumes [Essays : Biographical, and 
Essays: Foreign Politics, Murray, 1905). 



250 THE CECILS 

only elaborate discussions of the political questions 
of the day, which have an abiding historical 
value, but also weighty statements of political 
theory, and many an instructive glimpse of 
ethical motive and of the origin, growth, and 
modification of opinion. In finish of style, in 
controversial resource and subtlety, in the wide 
range of their scholarship and worldly wisdom, 
in the loftiness of their ideals and the strange 
combination of polemical bitterness with the 
most generous sympathies, these articles present 
us with an absolutely new picture of Lord 
Salisbury." 

In 1858 appeared a volume of " Oxford Essays," 
which contained a paper by Lord Robert Cecil on 
" The Theories of Parliamentary Reform," a 
subject upon which his opinions are of special 
interest in view of his action nine years later. 
The upshot of his argument is that there is no 
objection to the extension of the franchise, so 
long as mere numbers are not allowed to pre- 
dominate over every other power in the State. 
Our whole constitution is " anomalous and 
irregular," but the anomalies and irregularities, 
the growth of ages, tend to counteract one 
another ; and " to remove one evil without 
removing that which is its counterpoise, to 
withdraw one poison from the prescription with- 
out withdrawing the other which is its antidote, 
is the maddest course of all. Better far to recon- 
struct the whole ; better still to let that which 
has worked well, work on." And he concludes 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 251 

with a sentence which sums up his opinion on 
the subject : " Whichever course is taken, the 
condition in the representative system which it 
is our duty to maintain, even at the cost of any 
restriction or any anomaly, is that the intellectual 
status of the legislature shall not be lowered, and 
that sufficient weight, direct or indirect, shall 
be given to property to secure it from the 
possibility of harm." 

His first article in the Quarterly Review (April, 
i860) dealt with the same subject, and was a 
severe and trenchant criticism of Lord John 
Russell's Reform Bill. The article caused a 
considerable stir in political circles, and Lord 
John Russell felt it necessary to defend himself 
in a speech in the House. The Bill was soon 
afterwards dropped. 

During the uneventful years of Palmerston's 
last administration (1859 — 1865), Lord Robert 
Cecil continued to increase his reputation as a 
ready debater and a brilliant speaker. " Beware 
of that young man," said Palmerston to one of 
his colleagues ; " he is master of one great secret 
of success in debate. Instead of defending him- 
self, he attacks you." He was strongly interested 
in all educational questions and in all matters 
affecting the well-being of the poor, and his 
staunch churchmanship v/on him the confidence 
of the High Anghcan party, whose recognised 
spokesman in Parliament he became. These years 
are memorable for his contests with Gladstone, 
which began over the Bill for the Repeal of the 



252 THE CECILS 

Paper Duties. The general opposition to this 
measure was based on the contention that the 
state of the national finance did not permit of so 
large a loss of revenue, and, moreover, it was 
regarded as a sop offered to the extreme Radicals 
to secure their support for other proposals of the 
Government. Lord Robert Cecil was courageous 
enough to oppose it on its own merits. " Can it 
be maintained," he said, " that a person of any 
education can learn anything worth knowing 
from a penny paper ? It may be said that 
people may learn what has been said in Parlia- 
ment. Well, will that contribute to their 
education ? " Such unbending Conservatism reads 
strangely at the present day ; yet had the speaker 
lived to witness the development of the half- 
penny press in this country, it is probable that 
he would have congratulated himself on the 
wisdom of his attitude. 

Palmerston himself was opposed to the Bill, 
and even wrote to the Queen to the effect that if 
the House of Lords threw it out, they would 
" perform a good public service." Gladstone, 
however, when the Lords did their duty, became 
all the more determined to have his way, and in 
the following year he again proposed the repeal 
of the Paper Duties. Hitherto it had been the 
invariable custom to make the different taxes 
which composed the Budget into separate Bills, 
each of which was passed through the Commons 
and sent up to the Lords. The Upper House 
could thus reject — though they could not amend 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 253 

— any one Bill without upsetting the whole of the 
financial arrangement of the year. Gladstone 
now embodied all his financial proposals, including 
the repeal of the Paper Duties, in one Bill, thus 
compelling the Lords either to accept it as it 
stood, or to go to the extreme length of rejecting 
the whole. Whatever may be said as to the 
merits of the Bill, it cannot be denied that this 
action was a piece of trickery deserving the 
strongest censure of all who valued straight- 
forwardness in public life. Throughout the 
debates Lord Robert Cecil distinguished himself 
by the unsparing vigour of his attacks, both on 
the principle of the measure, and on the methods 
by which it was being pushed through the House. 

On one occasion he denounced the action of 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer as " more worthy 
of an attorney than a statesman," and on being 
invited to " reconsider his vocabulary," he 
solemnly rose to apologise for having done a 
great injustice — to the attorneys. 

It was in the course of one of these debates, 
when complaints had been made from the Govern- 
ment benches of the violence of Lord Robert 
Cecil's remarks, that Disraeli took the opportunity 
to say that he had " listened with satisfaction 
to the noble Lord, as it appeared to him that he 
had never heard more constitutional opinions 
expressed in more effective language." 

During these years he perfected himself as a 
parliamentary debater. He lost no opportunity 
of attacking Gladstone's methods and principles, 



254 THE CECILS 

so that in reading these debates one seems to be 
listening to a later Cecil pointing out the iniquities 
of a later Chancellor of the Exchequer. But 
Gladstone, in spite of his doctrines, inspired 
respect and admiration in his opponent, of whose 
character and abilities, as will be seen later, he 
conceived a high opinion. 

Lord Robert Cecil was now, as ever, a close 
student of foreign politics, upon which he spoke 
with increasing authority. His speeches on the 
Brazilian difficulty in 1863, when he accused 
Earl Russell of adopting " a sort of tariff of 
insolence in his correspondence with foreign 
powers," and on the Government's policy toward 
Denmark in 1864, were marked by wide 
intellectual grasp and considerable oratorical 
power. 

On the death of his elder brother (June 14th, 
1865), Lord Robert succeeded to his title as 
Viscount Cranborne, and became heir to the 
Marquessate. 

The death of Palmerston, in October, finally 
closed the period of compromise between the 
aristocratic and democratic tendencies in British 
politics, and the new era was ushered in with 
Gladstone as leader of the House of Commons, 
pledged to Reform. Of the ill-fated Reform 
Bill of 1866, Lord Cranborne was one of the most 
vigorous opponents. 

Liberal opposition to the Bill was so strong 
that it had little chance of passing, but there is 
no doubt that Lord Cranborne's eloquent and 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 255 

incisive speeches, and his article in the Quarterly 
Review (March, 1866), which provoked an out- 
burst of irritation from Gladstone, played their 
part in procuring the defeat of the Government. 
He was now marked for promotion, and in 
spite of the fact that he had held no office 
previously, no surprise was felt when Lord 
Derby invited him to join his Cabinet as Secretary 
of State for India. At the same time he was 
sworn of the Privy Council (July 12th, 1866). 
Within a week of this date, he was called upon 
to introduce the Indian Budget, and astonished 
the House by his mastery of the intricate details 
of Indian finance. But his first tenure of office 
was of short duration. The question of Reform 
had now become urgent owing to the Hyde Park 
riots and the action of the Reform League ; and 
in February, 1867, Disraeli made an attempt to 
settle it by consent of the whole House. This 
proving unsuccessful, as might have been expected 
under the circumstances, a Bill was introduced, 
and three members of the Cabinet, Lord Cranborne, 
General Peel and Lord Carnarvon, resigned. 
The history of the events which led to this 
defection has often been told. It appears that 
two alternative measures, one of which granted 
household suffrage under certain conditions, while 
the other was based on a £6 franchise, were 
considered by the Cabinet, and on Saturday, 
February 23rd, the former was agreed upon. 
On the Monday morning, the three doubtful 
ministers, having carefully examined the statistics 



256 THE CECILS 

and safeguards on the strength of which they 
had agreed to the Bill, informed Lord Derby that 
they found them insufhcient, and threatened to 
resign. The Cabinet was hurriedly summoned 
half an hour before Derby was to address a 
meeting of the party, and in ten minutes the 
second measure was adopted instead of the 
first. The details of this proposal were explained 
by Lord Derby at the meeting in the afternoon, 
and by Disraeli in the House of Commons in 
the evening, but met with so cold a reception 
from their friends and such indignation from 
their opponents, that the Bill was withdrawn on 
the following day. Thereupon the three ministers 
resigned, and Disraeli brought in his original 
Bill. 

Lord Cranborne explained his action in a 
speech in the House, and it is interesting to note 
the impression created at the time upon one who 
afterwards became a devoted friend and colleague 
of Lord Salisbury : " Lord Cranborne's speech," 
writes Robert Lytton,^ " though uttered with 
much dignity and apparent sincerity of conviction, 
was certainly not generous, and certainly was 
suicidal to his reputation as a statesman, for his 
views are impossible." And he adds a doubt 
whether the speaker, though obviously very 
clever, would ever be a great man : "he wants 
heart, and seems never to rise above the level of 
a Saturday Reviewer." 

The progress of the Bill through the House of 

1 Persoyial and Literary Letters of Robert, Earl of Lytton, I. 218, 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 257 

Commons justified all Lord Cranborne's fears. 
One by one all the " checks and safeguards " 
disappeared, until, in its final form, he described 
the measure as " the result of the adoption of 
the principles of Bright at the dictation of 
Gladstone," and denounced it as "a political 
betrayal which has no parallel in our annals, 
which strikes at the root of all that mutual 
confidence which is the very soul of our party 
government, and on which only the strength and 
freedom of our representative institutions can be 
sustained." In his famous article, entitled, " The 
Conservative Surrender," which appeared in the 
Quarterly Review in October, he enlarged on this 
theme, combining a merciless exposure of the 
tactics of his leaders with a lofty appeal for 
adherence to principle in public life. 

He was, in fact, almost in despair at this time, 
feeling, as he said, that " the monarchical principle 
was dead, the aristocratical principle was doomed, 
and the democratical principle triumphant." But 
worse than his fears for the future were his wrath 
and scorn for his leaders who had betrayed the 
party and the nation, by passing, when in office, 
a measure practically identical with the one they 
had succeeded in throwing out the year before. 
" My opinions belong to the past," he wrote to 
Lord Coleridge in 1868,^ " and it is better that 
new principles in politics should be worked by 
those who sympathise with them heartily." 

This depression, however, soon passed away, 

' Life cf Lord Coleridge, II. 156. 



258 THE CECILS 

and he set himself to put into practice the principle 
he had himself laid down. "It is the duty of 
every Englishman, and of every English party," 
he had written, " to accept a political defeat 
cordially, and to lend their best endeavours to 
secure the success or to neutralise the evil of the 
principles to which they have been forced to 
submit." Now, as throughout his career, he was 
able before long to accept the accomplished fact ; 
and his fears of the results of Reform not being 
realised, he succeeded, while zealously upholding 
the old Tory doctrines of his great exemplars, 
Pitt and Castlereagh, in giving them a wider 
interpretation and in adapting them to the 
changed conditions of modern politics. 

So far from being a hide-bound Tory, as he is 
sometimes painted, he understood, far better 
than do the doctrinaire Radicals of his or of our 
time, that change is inevitable in political 
doctrine. " The axioms of the last age," he 
wrote in 1861, " are the fallacies of the present ; 
the principles which save one generation may be 
the ruin of the next. There is nothing abiding 
in political science but the necessity of truth, 
purity and justice." Like Pitt, he was " far too 
practical a politician to be given to abstract 
theories, universal doctrines, watchwords or shib- 
boleths of any kind. He knew of no political 
gospel that was to be preached in season and out 
of season." ^ And it is this " untheoretic mind " 

1 Ejsay on Stanhope' s Life of Pitt. Reprinted in Essays : 
Biographical. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 259 

which puzzled Gladstone, as will be seen later on, 
and has puzzled other students of Lord Salisbury. 

Lord Cranborne's last speech in the House of 
Commons was delivered in March, 1868, in the 
debate on Gladstone's resolution with regard to 
the Irish Church, which gave him an opportunity 
of defending in powerful and eloquent language 
the principle of an established Church. On 
April 12th, his father died and he succeeded to 
the title, and took his seat in the House of 
Lords. 

He soon gained the ear of this assembly, and 
took a leading part in the debates. His most 
important intervention in the session of 1868 was 
on the second reading of the Irish Church 
Suspensory Bill, which had passed through the 
Lower House by large majorities. Besides pul- 
verising the measure itself, and showing the 
futility of attempting to conciliate the Fenians 
by destroying the Church, he laid down in 
admirable terms the principle which should 
guide the House of Lords when it found itself 
in opposition to the Commons. This principle 
he consistently upheld, and his words are worth 
quoting at the present time, when there are still 
people who think that the House of Commons 
invariably represents the judgment of the nation, 
and that the duty of the Lords is merely to 
register its decrees : — 

" When the opinion of your countrymen has declared 
itself," he said, " and you see that their convictions — their 
firm, deliberate, sustained convictions — are in favour of 

S 2 



26o THE CECILS 

any course, I do not for a moment deny that it is your duty 
to yield. It may not be a pleasant process ; it may even 
make some of you wish that some other arrangement were 
existing ; but it is quite clear that whereas a member of a 
Government, when asked to do that which is contrary to 
his convictions, may resign, and a member of the Commons 
when asked to support any measure contrary to his con- 
victions, may abandon his seat, no such course as this is 
open to your Lordships ; and therefore on these rare and 
great occasions on which the national mind has fully 
declared itself, I do not doubt your Lordships would yield 
to the opinion of the country ; otherwise the machinery 
of government could not be carried on. But there is an 
enormous step between that and being the mere echo of 
the House of Commons." 

That the Lords did right in rejecting the 
Suspensory Bill cannot be questioned, and that 
Lord Salisbury was willing to act up to the 
principles he had so ably laid down, was proved 
in the following year. At the election of 1868, 
the Liberals were returned by a large majority, 
and Gladstone immediately set about his mission 
of " pacifying Ireland," by introducing the Bill 
for Disestablishing and Disendowing the Irish 
Church. When this measure reached the Upper 
House, Lord Salisbury, arguing that the general 
election had been fought on this question, used 
all his influence to secure its passage ; and, acting 
in co-operation with Archbishop Tait, was able to 
compose the difference which arose between the 
Houses on the subject of the Lords' amendments, 
and thus to avert a serious constitutional crisis. 
At the same time, the result of his moderating 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 261 

influence was to obtain better terms for the dis- 
established Church. 

Always willing to promote rational reforms, 
Lord Salisbury was connected this session with 
two measures, one of which is still urgently wanted, 
while the other appears to many people to be 
eminently reasonable. The first was the Parlia- 
mentary Proceedings Bill, which he introduced 
himself. The object of this measure was to do 
away with the hard and fast rule that all Bills 
must be passed through both Houses of Parlia- 
ment in the same session, and to provide that, 
subject to the assent of the Crown and of the 
two Houses, any Bill which had passed through 
one House might be considered by the other 
House in the following session. This Bill was 
read a second time in the Lords, and referred to 
a joint committee of the two Houses, but the 
Government were not interested in the subject 
and it was allowed to drop. 

The other measure, to which Lord Salisbury 
gave strong support, was Lord Russell's Bill for 
the Creation of Life Peerages. He believed that 
such a reform would strengthen the House of 
Lords in the opinion of the public, who, then as 
now, are easily caught by the absurd cry that 
the Peers are " not representative." " We must 
try," he said, " to impress on the country the 
fact that because we are not an elective House, 
we are not a bit the less a representative House ; 
and not until the constitution of the House plainly 
reveals the fact, shall we be able to retain 



262 THE CECILS 

permanently, in face of the advances of the 
House of Commons, the ancient privileges and 
constitution of this House." The Bill was 
thrown out on the third reading. Twenty years 
later Lord Salisbury made a second attempt to 
introduce this reform, but with no greater success. 
His Life Peerage Bill of 1888, after passing its 
second reading, was withdrawn, and has never 
since been heard of. 

At this time (1868 — 1872), Lord SaHsbury was 
chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, and he 
was associated with Lord Cairns as arbitrator in 
connection with the affairs of the London, Chatham 
and Dover Railway in 1871 — 72. In November, 
i86g, he was elected by a unanimous vote to the 
office of Chancellor of the University of Oxford, 
rendered vacant by the death of the old Lord 
Derby. A scholar and a student by nature, it 
was a post for which he was in many ways excep- 
tionally well qualified ; but though he held it 
for the rest of his life, he refrained from active 
participation in University matters. His interest 
in University Reform is shown by his appointment 
of the Universities Commission in 1877. 

The remaining years of the Gladstone Govern- 
ment may be passed over with little comment. 
While applying himself to the amendment and 
improvement of several of the chief measures 
introduced by the Government, such as the 
Irish Land Bill, the Education Bill, and the 
University Tests Bill, and supporting others, such 
as the Peace Preservation Bill of 1870 and the 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 263 

Bank Holidays Bill of the following year, Lord 
Salisbury was unsparing in his attacks on Liberal 
abuses of power, as shown, for example, in the 
Abolition of Purchase in the Army by Royal 
Warrant, after the rejection of the Bill in the 
House of Lords ; in the attempt to force the 
Ballot Bill through the Upper House without 
allowing opportunity for discussion ; and in the 
disgraceful jobbery in the matter of appointments, 
of which the case of Sir Robert Collier and the 
" Ewelme Scandal " were particularly gross. 

The election of 1874 proved that, as he antici- 
pated, the people were tired of " heroic legislation," 
and were determined to impose a truce on " these 
perpetual attacks on classes and institutions and 
interests, which are fatal to the union, the peace, 
and the prosperity of the country." For the 
first time for thirty years the Conservatives were 
returned to power with a commanding majority, 
and Gladstone at once resigned. 

In Disraeli's new Cabinet, Lord SaHsbury 
again occupied the position of Secretary for 
India. He was at once called upon to deal 
with a critical situation created by the famine 
in Bengal, and by upholding the action of the 
Viceroy, Lord Northbrook — his political opponent 
— against that of Sir. G. Campbell, the Lieut. - 
Governor of Bengal, he showed that he was not 
only capable of taking large views of a serious 
question, uninfluenced by personal or party con- 
siderations, but was also courageous enough 
to maintain his opinion in the face of popular 



264 THE CECILS 

clamour. The policy adopted — of importing rice 
into Bengal without interfering with the export 
trade — was completely justified by its success. 

The Public Worship Regulation Bill, of 1874, 
gave Lord Salisbury another opportunity to 
expound his views on the Church of England and 
the relation between the Church and the State. 
With much eloquence he defended his position, 
that the existence of the establishment depends 
on its frank and loyal tolerance of three 
schools in the Church — the " Sacramental," the 
" Emotional " and the " Philosophical" — which 
arise, " not from any difference in the truth 
itself, but because the truth must necessarily 
assume different tints, as it is refracted through 
the different media of different minds." " The 
problem you have to solve," he said, " is how to 
repress personal and individual eccentricities, if 
you will, how to repress all exhibitions of wilful- 
ness, of lawlessness, of caprice : but, at the same 
time that you do that, you must carefully guard 
any measures which you introduce from injuring 
the consciences or suppressing the rights of either 
of the three schools of which the Church consists. 
On this condition alone can your legislation be 
safe." In this attitude, he showed himself far 
more moderate and statesmanlike than the 
majority of the Lords, who passed the Bill in 
sympathy with the popular cry against Ritualism. 

This Bill, which was officially supported by 
Disraeli, was again the occasion of a difference of 
opinion between the Premier and the Secretary 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 265 

for India. The debates further led to an incident 
which has become historical. In urging the 
Lords to stand firm in rejecting an amendment 
inserted by the Commons in deference to the wishes 
of the extremists, Lord Salisbury referred to the 
argument that the Peers ought to pass the clause 
because of the majority in the Commons, and of 
the danger to the Bill if the clause were rejected ; 
and he further remarked that there was " a 
good deal of that kind of bluster when any 
particular course has been taken in the other 
House of Parliament," adding that it was the 
duty of the Lords to take the course which they 
deemed right. The clause was accordingly 
rejected, and the Commons accepted the alteration 
rather than lose the Bill. But Disraeli, mis- 
understanding Lord Salisbury's words, took the 
opportunity to refer to " my noble friend " as 
" not a man who measures his phrases ; one who 
is a great master of gibes and flouts and jeers," 
but, he added, " I do not suppose there is anyone 
who is prejudiced against a member of Parliament 
on account of such qualifications. My noble 
friend knows the House of Commons well, and 
he is not perhaps superior to the consideration 
that by making a speech of that kind, and taunting 
respectable men like ourselves with being * a 
blustering majority,' he probably might stimulate 
the amour propre of some individuals to take the 
course which he wants and to defeat the Bill." 
Lord Salisbury took the first opportunity of 
protesting against this interpretation of his 



266 THE CECILS 

remarks, which, of course, referred to the argu- 
ments of a previous speaker in the Lords, and not 
to anything said in the other House. 

Some surprise had aheady been expressed at 
his acceptance of office under the leader with 
whom he had quarrelled so violently seven 
years before, and this episode gave rise to a 
great deal of malevolent gossip about the relations 
between the two men. There were even rumours 
of the impending resignation of Lord Salisbury, 
but they were silenced by Disraeli's speech at 
the Lord Mayor's banquet, in which he paid 
a well-deserved tribute to his colleague in regard 
to his Indian administration. It is, in fact, very 
greatly to the credit of both that, in spite of their 
difference of temperament, they were able to act 
in harmony for the remainder of Disraeli's life. 
As Dr. Traill pointed out, in his monograph on 
Lord Salisbury, " both enjoyed the inestimable 
advantage of being opposed by a politician whose 
influence in undesignedly healing feuds among 
his political adversaries has so often earned him 
the benediction pronounced upon the peace- 
makers." Their common hostility to Gladstone 
no doubt helped to unite them, but it is hardly 
enough to account for the subsequent cordiality 
between the two colleagues, which enabled Lord 
Salisbury to say, on the death of his chief, that 
there was " never a cloud between them through 
all their arduous labour." ^ 

1 Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 136. In saying this. Lord Salisbury 
must surely have forgotten the incident just related. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 267 

In 1876, the crisis in the Near East turned 
all thoughts away from home affairs, and the 
course of events provided Lord Salisbury with 
his first experience as a diplomatist. Servia and 
Montenegro declared war on Turkey in July, 
and in the autumn Gladstone's agitation over the 
Bulgarian atrocities stirred up passions and 
created an atmosphere in which sane diplomacy 
found its difficulties enormously increased. In 
November, Turkey granted an armistice at the 
instance of Russia, and Britain at once suggested 
a conference of the Powers, which sat at Constanti- 
nople from December nth, 1876, to January 20th, 
1877. To this conference Lord Salisbury was sent 
as the English plenipotentiary, and the selection 
was warmly approved by Gladstone. 

" I think it right," he wrote to a correspondent, " at 
once to give you my opinion of Lord Salisbury, whom I 
know pretty well in private. He has little foreign or 
Eastern knowledge, and little craft ; he is rough of tongue 
in public debate, but a great gentleman in private society ; 
he is very remarkably clever, of unsure judgment, but is 
above anything mean ; has no Disraelite prejudices ; 
keeps a conscience, and has plenty of manhood and 
character. In a word the appointment of Lord Salisbury 
to Constantinople is the best thing the Government have 
yet done in the Eastern question." ^ 

Accompanied by Lady Salisbury, Lord Cran- 
borne, and Lady Maud Cecil, the British 
representative left London on November 20th, 
and after visiting Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Rome, 

1 Morley, Gladstone, Life of, ed. 1905, II. 168. 



268 THE CECILS 

and exchanging views with the foreign ministers in 
those capitals, he arrived at Constantinople early 
in December. The object of the Conference, as he 
afterwards pointed out, was " first of all to restore 
peace between Turkey and Servia and Montenegro, 
and then to obtain good government for the 
Turkish provinces ; but," he added, " undoubtedly 
we also went into the Conference to stop a great 
and menacing danger, namely, the prospect of 
war between Russia and Turkey." The British 
proposals, which formed the basis of discussion, 
included the conclusion of peace, and the restora- 
tion of the status quo in Servia and Montenegro ; 
the concession of local self-government to Bosnia 
and Herzegovina ; and a guarantee for the good 
government of Bulgaria. These proposals the 
Porte rejected, and the Conference broke up, 
with the inevitable sequel that Russia declared 
war. 

For the first nine months of the war, England 
maintained a strict neutrality, keeping, however, 
a watchful eye upon any action which might 
affect her interests. But after the fall of Plevna, 
the Russian advance began to threaten Constanti- 
nople, and the British Government decided, in 
January, 1878, to send the fleet through the 
Dardanelles — a course of action for which Lord 
Salisbury, " worn out by Russian duplicity," 
was more eager than anyone else.^ Then came 
the Treaty of San Stefano, and the consequent 
proposal for a Congress of the Powers, to which 

1 Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 46* 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 269 

Russia agreed, while arrogantly reserving to her- 
self the liberty of accepting for discussion only 
such points as she thought fit. Negotiations were 
consequently broken ofi, the reserves called out, 
and to the relief of the Government, Lord Derby, 
who had for some time been in disagreement with 
his colleagues, finally resigned (March 28th). 

In explaining the reasons for his resignation 
in the House of Lords, some months later. Lord 
Derby said that the Cabinet had decided to 
send a " secret naval expedition " to seize the 
island of Cyprus, together with a point on the 
Syrian coast. Thereupon Lord Salisbury " very 
pointedly contradicted him, on the authority, 
not only of his own memory, but of the memories 
of several of his colleagues " ; ^ and he further 
proceeded to compare his revelations with those 
of Titus Oates. This regrettable misunder- 
standing arose, according to Sir Stafford Northcote, 
from the failure of Lord Derby " to distinguish 
between a conversation about certain undecided 
points, and a decision about another point, the 
Reserves." ^ The difference of opinion was 
accentuated by the personal antagonism which 
always existed between the two men, in spite 
of their close connection by marriage. Lord 
Derby afterwards joined Gladstone's ministry as 
Colonial Secretary, and Lord Salisbury remarked 
of him that he " never strayed far from the 
frontier lines of either party, where he expended 

1 Andrew Lang, Life of Sir S. Northcote, II. 107. 

2 Ibid.. II. 108. 



270 THE CECILS 

his great powers in being disagreeable to his 
former friends." 

A few days later (April ist), the appointment 
of Lord Salisbury as Foreign Secretary was 
announced, and next day there appeared in the 
Press the famous " Salisbury Circular," a note 
addressed to the British representatives abroad, 
which summed up in masterly fashion the objec- 
tions to the Treaty of San Stefano, chief among 
which was the proposed creation of a " big 
Bulgaria," and at the same time set forth, in 
courteous but clear and resolute language, the 
aims of British policy. The effect of this 
memorable document — ^the " Happy Despatch " 
as it was called — was to prove to Europe in general, 
and Russia in particular, that England was 
prepared to take the necessary steps to defend 
her interests. She was seen to be in earnest, and 
her declaration of policy was welcomed both at 
home and abroad. Negotiations were conse- 
quently resumed on a sounder basis, and on 
June 3rd the Government were able to announce 
that the Congress would meet in Berlin in ten 
days' time, and that all the provisions of the 
Treaty would come under discussion. Great 
Britain was to be represented by the Prime 
Minister and the Foreign Secretary. 

Meanwhile, meetings had taken place between 
Lord Salisbury and Count Shuvalov, the Russian 
Ambassador, and as a result a private agreement 
had been arrived at as to the basis of the proposed 
compromise. An outline of this agreement was 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 271 

surreptitiously divulged to the Glohe newspaper 
by a Foreign Office copyist, and Lord Salisbury 
was asked in the House of Lords whether there 
was any truth in the statement. His reply that 
the " statement was wholly unauthentic and not 
deserving of the confidence of your Lordship's 
House," has been the subject of much criticism, 
and has been described as " the most debatable 
incident in a singularly honourable career." ^ 
But it is surely not open to doubt that there 
are occasions when a statesman, whose duty is 
to uphold the interests of his country, must 
act in obedience to higher principles even than 
verbal accuracy. In the present case silence 
would have been equivalent to acquiescence, 
and an affirmation of the authenticity of the 
agreement would have rendered it useless as a 
basis of discussion, and, in all probability, have 
stultified the Congress altogether. " For my 
own part," says Dr. Traill with much wisdom,^ 
" I do not hesitate to avow that a statesman who, 
so situated, should deliberately prefer to sacrifice 
what he conceived to be the highest interests of 
the State to his private scruples, would deserve 
that his head should be first crowned for his 
fidelity to his own conscience, and then struck 
off for treason to his country." 
The Congress sat for a month, and the resulting 

1 Diet. Nat. Biog., 2nd Supp., I. 334. 

2 Life of Lord Salisbury, p. 176. Mr. (now Sir Henry) Lucy wittily 
fathered on Lord Derby the proposal that " a famihar proverb shall 
henceforth be quoted cum grano Salis-bury " {Diary of Two Parliaments, 
I- 445)- 



272 THE CECILS 

treaty followed closely the lines of the Salisbury- 
Shu valov agreement. The most dangerous pro- 
vision of the Treaty of San Stefano, by which a 
greater Bulgaria, extending southwards to the 
Aegean, was formed into an autonomous 
principality, was abrogated, and instead two 
autonomous provinces were formed — Bulgaria 
with an elected prince, and Eastern Roumelia, 
south of the Balkans, with a Christian governor 
nominated by the Porte. Russia obtained Bess- 
arabia as well as Kars and Batoum, the latter to 
be made into a free commercial port. Montenegro, 
Servia and Roumania were confirmed in their 
independence, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were 
handed over to be administered by Austria. The 
latter arrangement was Lord Salisbury's own 
proposal, and was in accordance with his strongly 
held opinion, that " in the strength and indepen- 
dence of Austria lie the best hopes of European 
stability and peace." ^ 

By a convention with Turkey, concluded before 
the Conference met, the protectorate of Cyprus 
was transferred to England, who, in return, 
undertook to guarantee the integrity of the 
Sultan's Asiatic possessions. 

Though the provisions of this treaty have not 
proved lasting, great credit is due to the British 
plenipotentiaries for their share in it ; and of 
this credit. Lord Salisbury, in spite of Bismarck's 
unkind description of him as " a lath painted to 
look like iron," deserves almost, if not quite, as 

1 Speech at Manchester, October, 1879. 




O. Richmond 



ROBERT, THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY, K.G. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 273 

much as his colleague. On their return to 
London, they were received with popular ovations, 
and the Queen expressed her appreciation of 
their services by investing them with the Order 
of the Garter — the only honour Lord Salisbury 
accepted from the Crown until the end of his 
long career/ 

Beaconsfield's " peace with honour " was no 
inapt' description of an agreement which averted 
war while curbing the ambitions of Russia. 
" Give Russia an inch," said a wit, " and she will 
take the Dardanelles " ; and English policy was 
largely governed by that fear. Thus, although the 
treaty did not satisfy those enthusiasts who 
wanted the Turk swept " bag and baggage " 
out of Europe, reasonable people perceived that 
at any rate Turkish opportunities of oppressing 
the Christian population of the Balkans had been 
considerably curtailed. 

As to the wisdom of British policy as a whole 
in regard to Russia, that is too large a subject 
to touch upon here. But there is no doubt that 
Lord Salisbury himself had misgivings on the 
subject. Many years later, when he spoke of 
our having " put all our money upon the wrong 
horse," he was referring to the rejection of the 
Emperor Nicholas's overtures in 1853, which 
committed this country to an anti-Russian 
policy ; and on the same occasion ^ he defended 
the Treaty of Berlin on the ground that " when 

1 He was created G.C.V.O. on his retirement in 1902 

2 Speech in the House of Lords, January 19th, 1897. 

C. T 



274 THE CECILS 

a step of this kind has once been taken, you are 
practically obliged to go on," and " all that Lord 
Beaconsfield did was to carry out the policy 
which his predecessors had laid down." He 
added that Beaconsfield was not free from mis- 
giving, but " still entertained hopes, which I 
did not entertain. Those hopes have not been 
realised." 

During the next two years, the popularity of 
the Government declined, and in 1880 the 
Liberals were again returned to power, with 
Gladstone as Prime Minister. A year later, on 
April 19th, 1881, Lord Beaconsfield died, at the 
height of his reputation, and Lord Salisbury 
succeeded him as Conservative leader in the 
House of Lords. Sir Stafford Northcote still 
led the Opposition in the Commons, and this 
system of " dual control " continued for the 
next four years. 

At this time Lord Salisbury was by no means 
universally recognised as the future Prime 
Minister. Great as was his ability, he was thought 
to be wanting in tact and moderation, and his 
personal reserve prevented him from being in 
any sense a popular figure. " He has many of 
the most necessary qualities of a leader," wrote 
Lord Lytton at this time ; " great powers of 
work, and a charm of manner very attractive 
to those who are immediately about him. But 
he makes bitter personal enemies, and the country 
at large mistrusts him, I think." ^ 

1 Letters of Robert, Earl of Lytton, II. 233. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 275 

He did little while in opposition to increase 
his reputation. To Gladstone's reckless and 
demoralising Irish legislation he offered no 
effective resistance. The Irish Land Bill of 
188 1 was allowed to pass, after Gladstone had 
accepted the Lords' amendments, and the same 
course was adopted with the infamous Arrears 
Bill of the following year ; though in the latter 
case it is only fair to Lord Salisbury to remember 
that he wished to insist on the Lords' amendments, 
and so defeat the Bill, which he described as an 
act of simple robbery, but he was overruled by 
his followers. 

In the last two articles which he contributed 
to the Quarterly Review,^ he subjected Liberal 
policy at home and abroad to the most scathing 
and damaging analysis. The writer's enunciation 
of sound Conservative principles, and his searching 
insight into the psychology of Radical legislation, 
render these articles not only eminently readable, 
but applicable for page after page to the events 
of the present day. Whether he deals with the 
increasing influence of that school of political 
thought, whose " distinguishing mark is that in 
any issues which may arise between England 
and any other population, foreign or dependent, 
they usually find reason for thinking that England 
is in the wrong " ; or dilates on the dangers of 
hasty and ill-considered legislation, or of the 
uncontrolled powers of the House of Commons ; 

1 October, 1881, "Ministerial Embarrassments" and October, 1883, 
" Disintegration." 

T 2 



276 THE CECILS 

or gives expression to the anxiety caused by 
attacks on landed property and appeals to class 
hatred : it is difficult to believe that he is writing 
of the current politics of thirty years ago. 

In the article entitled " Disintegration," he 
sums up admirably what should be the aim of the 
Conservative party : " The object of our party 
is not, and ought not to be, simply to keep things 
as they are. In the first place, the enterprise is 
impossible. In the next place, there is much in 
our present mode of thought and action which 
it is highly undesirable to conserve. What we 
require in the administration of public affairs, 
whether in the executive or the legislative depart- 
ment, is that spirit of the old constitution which 
held the nation together as a whole, and levelled 
its united force at objects of national import, 
instead of splitting it up into a bundle of 
unfriendly and distrustful fragments." 

Another passage in the same article, written, 
be it remembered, before any prominent politician 
had advocated Home Rule, contains so wise and 
so prophetic a pronouncement on the subject 
that it deserves to be quoted : — 

" The highest interests of the Empire, as well as the 
most sacred obligations of honour, forbid us to solve this 
question by conceding any species of independence to 
Ireland ; or, in other words, any licence to the majority 
in that country, to govern the rest of Irishmen as they 
please. To the minority, to those who have trusted us, 
and on the faith of our protection have done our work, it 
would be a sentence of exile or of ruin. All that is Protes- 
tant, nay, all that is loyal, all who have land or money to 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 277 

lose, all by whose enterprise and capital industry and 
commerce are still sustained, would be at the mercy of the 
adventurers who have led the Land League, if not of the 
darker counsellors by whom the Invincibles have been 
inspired. If we have failed after centuries of effort to 
make Ireland peaceable and civilised, we have no moral 
right to abandon our post and leave all the penalty of our 
failure to those whom we have persuaded to trust in our 
power. It would be an act of political bankruptcy, an 
avowal that we were unable to satisfy even the most sacred 
obligations, and that all claims to protect or govern 
anyone beyond our own narrow island were at an end." 

The disastrous policy of the Government in 
Ireland, their " blunders, shortcomings and mis- 
adventures " abroad — in South Africa, in Egypt 
and the Sudan, in Afghanistan and elsewhere — 
and the violent dissensions in the Cabinet and the 
party, afforded incomparable opportunities to 
the Opposition of which, however, they did not 
take sufficiently active advantage. In 1884, 
Gladstone introduced a Franchise Bill, by which 
he proposed to add 2,000,000 voters to the 
register. It was resisted mainly on the ground 
that it was not accompanied by a redistribution 
scheme, and on the second reading in the Lords, 
an amendment on these lines was carried by a 
majority of fifty-nine. The Bill was consequently 
withdrawn, to be reintroduced in an autumn 
session, when negotiations between the Conserva- 
tive and Liberal leaders resulted in an agreement 
that a Redistribution Bill should be brought in 
and the Franchise Bill be allowed to pass. These 
meetings between Lord Sahsbury, Sir Stafford 



278 THE CECILS 

Northcote and Gladstone are interesting, as 
marking the first time on record when a measure 
has been discussed before its introduction by the 
leaders of both sides. Gladstone was good enough 
to say that he was much struck with the quickness 
of Lord Salisbury, and found it a pleasure to deal 
with so acute a man. At the same time he 
declared that Lord Salisbury was entirely devoid 
of respect for tradition, and that he himself was 
a strong Conservative in comparison.^ The fact 
was, no doubt, that here, as always, Lord Salisbury 
showed that he cared nothing for abstract theories, 
and was prepared to consider any proposal on 
its merits without reference to party catchwords, 
a state of mind naturally unintelligible to his 
opponent. 

1 Morley's Life of Gladstone, II. 378. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY (continued) 

The abandonment of Gordon and the fall of 
Khartoum, in February, 1885, aroused, in Lord 
Salisbury's words, " not only sympathy and 
regret, but bitter and burning indignation." 
Gordon, he declared, had been " sacrificed to 
the squabbles of a Cabinet, and the necessities 
of Parliamentary tactics," and this shameful 
betrayal, combined with the universal feeling that 
the honour and reputation of England were not 
safe in the hands of the Government, finally 
decided their fate. They hung on till June, when 
they were defeated on a Budget vote of no 
importance, and at once resigned. The Queen 
sent for Lord Salisbury, who consented to take 
office, although the Conservatives were in a 
minority of nearly 100 in the House of Commons, 
and owing to the new Redistribution Bill, a 
general election was not possible until November. 

Difficulties arose, first owing to Gladstone's 
unwillingness to pledge himself to give the 
necessary support to the Government in the 
conduct of public business, and secondly, because 
Lord Randolph Churchill refused to serve if 
Sir Stafford Northcote still led the House of 
Commons. The first difficulty was settled by 



28o THE CECILS 

the intervention of the Queen, and the second by 
the promotion of Northcote to the Peerage, as 
Earl of Iddesleigh, with the post of First Lord of 
the Treasury The Prime Minister himself went to 
the Foreign Ofhce, and Sir M. Hicks-Beach became 
Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the 
House of Commons. The difficulty of the dual 
leadership of the party was thus finally overcome. 
These negotiations rendered the formation of 
a ministry more than usually troublesome, and 
Lord Cranbrook, who was Lord President of the 
Council, records in his Diary that " Salisbury, 
weary of the self-seekers, the beggars, the imprac- 
ticables, and above all, of one who played such 
pranks, would gladly have thrown up his task, 
and gone almost into private life ; but his feeling 
for the Queen, who cannot retire or resign, was 
such as to overbear all other considerations." ^ 
Lord Salisbury, as the same observer notes, 
" abhorred patronage and its littleness," and 
though he loved the Foreign Office, and would 
not willingly have given that up, he would 
probably have gladly resigned the Premiership 
at any time.^ 

In this ministry, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Lord 
Salisbury's nephew, took office for the first time, 
as President of the Local Government Board. 

At home the Government had little to do beyond 
the necessary winding-up of business in prepara- 
tion for the election in the autumn. But Lord 

* Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 220. 
2 Ibid.. II. 286. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 281 

Salisbury managed to pass a useful Bill for the 
Housing of the Working Classes, based on the 
report of a Commission for which he had moved 
in the previous year. 

Abroad the situation was full of embarrass- 
ments. Isolated in Europe, the country was 
embroiled in quarrels all over the world, and was 
on the brink of war with Russia on the Afghan 
frontier. In this matter, which arose out of 
what is known as the Penjdeh incident, the 
Liberal Foreign Minister, Lord Granville, had 
made concession after concession, justifying Lord 
Salisbury's taunt that " the Government go 
into every danger with a light head, and then 
they make up by escaping from it with a light 
foot." He took a more firm attitude, and the 
Russians, seeing that he was in earnest, agreed 
to the appointment of a boundary commission. 
War, which a few months earlier had appeared 
to be inevitable, was thus avoided. In Egypt 
and elsewhere, Lord Sahsbury's handling of the 
problems left him by his predecessors had good 
results, and even won the approbation of 
Gladstone, who said " he could not object to one 
item of his foreign pohcy " ; on hearing which, 
Lord Salisbury remarked, " I fear I must have 
done wrong." ^ But before his work could be 
perfected, the general election (December, 1885) 
again put the Liberals in office, a result due to 
the gratitude of the newly enfranchised agri- 
cultural labourers. 

1 Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 239. 



282 THE CECILS 

Hostile critics have made much capital out of 
Lord Salisbury's supposed philanderings with 
Home Rule. In a speech at Newport (October 7th, 
1885), which Lord Morley describes as " one of 
the tallest and most striking landmarks in the 
shifting sands of this controversy," he used words 
which have been taken as an indication that he 
considered the creation of an Irish Parliament 
as more satisfactory than a mere extension of 
Local Government. Yet, later in the same 
speech, the following words occur : " With respect 
to the larger organic questions connected with 
Ireland, I cannot say much, though I can speak 
emphatically. I have nothing to say but that 
the traditions of the party to which we belong 
are on this point clear and distinct, and you 
may rely upon it our party will not depart from 
them." Surely this explicit statement is at least 
sufficient to show that in his previous remarks 
he had not the " larger organic questions " in 
mind. In fact, no construction of this kind would 
ever have been put on the speech had not an 
event come to light which seemed to point in a 
similar direction. It appeared that, in the 
preceding June, the Irish Viceroy, Lord Carnarvon, 
with the approval of the Prime Minister, had an 
interview with Parnell, at which, according to 
the subsequent report of the Irish leader. Lord 
Carnarvon outlined a scheme of Home Rule with 
which Parnell found himself " in complete accord." 
In spite of the Viceroy's denial of the accuracy 
of this report, the incident was, of course, eagerly 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 283 

seized upon by partisans on the look-out for any 
stick with which to belabour their opponents. 
It is one of the commonest and cheapest forms 
of political controversy to accuse your adversary 
of secret attachment to the particular line of 
policy which he spends his life in opposing. Had 
Lord Salisbury shown any leanings towards Home 
Rule, indications of his state of mind would 
certainly have appeared in his private corre- 
spondence. This has not yet been published, 
but we are told by a writer who has had access 
to it that it contains " nothing to show that he 
even contemplated anything more than the 
measure of Irish Local Government, which, in 
fact, he afterwards granted." ^ 

Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill was introduced 
in April, and while the debate was at its height, 
Lord Salisbury committed one of his " blazing 
indiscretions," of which his opponents were quick 
to take advantage. In a speech in St. James's 
Hall (May 15th, 1886) he propounded his recipe 
for the pacification of Ireland — " twenty years' 
resolute government." And he V\^ent on to say 
that Ireland was not one nation, but two nations. 
" There were races like the Hottentots, and even 
the Hindus, incapable of self-government. He 
would not place confidence in people who 
had acquired the habit of using knives and 
slugs." 

With regard to these and similar " calculated 
brutalities " of speech, the opinion of Lord Robert 

1 Mr. Algernon Cecil in the Diet. Nat. Biog., 2nd Supp. I. 336. 



284 THE CECILS 

Cecil may be quoted.-^ After speaking of his 
father's hatred of all hypocrisy and cant, and his 
contempt for all trivial and unnecessary con- 
ventionalities, he says : — 

" It is to this side of his character that belong his so- 
called ' blazing indiscretions.' These I take to have been 
not the mere efflorescence of a reckless wit, still less the 
outcome of a cynical disbelief in lofty ideals, but the 
result of his anxious desire that those whom he was leading 
should know, as far as possible, the real opinions of their 
leader. When he described ' twenty years' resolute 
government ' as the alternative policy to Home Rule, 
when he said villagers would find a parish circus more 
amusing than a parish council, he was not only speaking 
the literal truth, as subsequent events have proved, but 
he was deliberately putting before the electors in a striking 
form an aspect of the question under consideration which 
he thought important, and which the party managers 
were anxious to keep in the background. Other mental 
or moral characteristics — for in Lord Salisbury the two 
were often indistinguishable— were no doubt partly 
responsible for the ' indiscretions.' Himself incapable of 
self-deception, he thought it the most dangerous of all 
mental defects. Any phrase or opinion arising from this 
cause or even from want of clearness of thought he 
regarded as noxious. And he did not shrink from 
attacking intellectual insincerity, even though he might 
wound feelings otherwise entitled to respect." 

To which it may be added that he cared less 
than nothing about public opinion, and, therefore, 
spoke exactly w^hat he thought, checked by no 
fear of " what people would say." 

1 Monthly Review, October, 1903. The article appeared anony- 
mously, but has since been acknowledged by Lord R. Cecil 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 285 

The Home Rule Bill was defeated by a majority 
of thirty (June 8th), and a dissolution followed. 
The resulting election gave the combined Unionists 
a majority of 118 over the Gladstonians and 
Nationalists. 

After a magnanimous attempt to induce Lord 
Hartington, the leader of the Liberal Unionists, 
to form a Government, Lord Salisbury again took 
ofhce on July 26th, 1886. He himself became 
First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Iddesleigh 
going to the Foreign Of&ce, while Lord Randolph 
Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer and 
leader of the House of Commons. Mr. Balfour was 
made Secretary for Scotland, and was admitted to 
a seat in the Cabinet a few months later. Friction 
soon arose between Churchill and his chief ; and 
at Christmas, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
as a protest against Lord Iddesleigh's foreign 
policy, and the growth of expenditure on arma- 
ments, tendered his resignation, which, to his 
great surprise, was accepted. 

At this crisis the Prime Minister again 
approached Lord Hartington, with the proposal 
that he should either form a coalition government 
or enter the ministry as leader of the House of 
Commons.^ In spite of the strong desire expressed 
by the Queen that he should accept this offer, 
Hartington felt unable to comply. It was, how- 
ever, by his advice that Goschen joined the 
ministry as Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
W. H. Smith became First Lord of the Treasury 

1 Bernard Holland, Life of the Duke of Devonshire, II. 179. 



286 THE CECILS 

and leader of the House of Commons, and Lord 
Salisbury himself returned to the Foreign Office 
in place of Lord Iddesleigh, whose enforced 
resignation coincided with his tragic death. 

Another important change in the Cabinet 
occurred in March, when Mr. Balfour took the 
place of Sir M. Hicks-Beach as Irish Secretary, 
and began the five years' tenure of that office 
which formed so epoch-making a period in the 
government of Ireland. It also proved the 
making of his career. At the time of appoint- 
ment he was hardly taken seriously as a politician, 
being looked upon as a clever but rather indolent 
trifler, though Lord Salisbury, whose private 
secretary he had been at the time of the Berlin 
Congress, was no doubt aware of his ability. 
Yet within a remarkably short space of time he 
was not only recognised as one of the best debaters 
in the House, but had shown himself possessed 
of the highest qualities of statesmanship. 
Mastering the facts of the situation, and making 
up his mind that law must be maintained in 
Ireland at all costs, he refused to be turned from 
his purpose either by threats or sophistries, and 
the final result of his regime was that crime in 
Ireland practically ceased. Moreover, he became 
one of the most popular figures in Parliament, 
and won the respect even of the Irish members, 
who had received the announcement of his 
appointment with scornful laughter. And on 
the death of W. H. Smith, in October, 1891, 
Mr. Balfour was recognised as his natural successor. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 287 

and became First Lord of the Treasury and 
leader of the House of Commons. 

Apart from the actual Irish legislation of these 
years, the Crimes Act and the Land Act of 1887, 
and the Land Purchase Act of 1891, Irish affairs 
played a very large part in Lord Salisbury's 
second administration. The articles in the Times 
on " Parnellism and Crime," the Pigott forgeries, 
the Parnell Commission, the revelations in the 
divorce court and the consequent Parnellite split 
— all these events were crowded into the six 
years from 1886 — 1892. Yet, in spite of the 
Irish incubus, the Government was able to pass 
such important measures as the Local Govern- 
ment Acts (1888 and 1889), the Imperial Defence 
Act (1889), the Free Education Act (1891), the 
Factory Act (1891), and the Small Holdings 
Act (1892). 

Lord Salisbury's interests and labours lay, of 
course, mainly in the sphere of foreign affairs. 
The early part of his administration was a period 
full of danger, which needed a strong man at the 
helm. It saw the formation of the Triple Alliance 
— unreservedly welcomed by Lord Salisbury — 
the Boulanger movement in France, and the 
death of the Emperor William and of the Emperor 
Frederick in Germany. But the most important 
and critical work of the Foreign Secretary was 
contained in the negotiations with Germany, 
Portugal and France, which led to the delimitation 
of the respective spheres of influence of these 
powers in Africa. 



288 THE CECILS 

Since 1884 Germany had been active in seizing 
African territory, and Lord Granville had adopted 
a most complaisant attitude towards their schemes. 
Nor was Lord Iddesleigh more alive to British 
interests. During his short term of office, he 
actually completed an arrangement with Germany 
by which England might have been cut off 
altogether from the upper Nile. Lord Salisbury, 
however, was able to counteract the effects of 
this arrangement by granting a Royal Charter 
to the British East Africa Company, founded by 
Sir William Mackinnon. Gradually, under Lord 
Salisbury's influence, the rivalry between England 
and Germany entered on a less threatening phase, 
and in 1889, Bismarck, who a few years before 
had adopted an aggressive and bullying attitude 
to this country, declared, in a speech on colonial 
matters, that " we have proceeded, and always 
shall proceed, in harmony with the greatest 
colonial power in the world — England." But it 
was not till after Bismarck's fall that the pro- 
tracted negotiations culminated in the Anglo- 
German Agreement of 1890, by which the spheres 
of influence of the two countries in East and 
West Africa were determined. German}'' relin- 
quished all claim to Uganda and the Upper 
Nile, and recognised England's protectorate of 
Zanzibar, receiving in exchange the island of 
Heligoland. This agreement is one of Lord 
Salisbury's greatest achievements as a diplomatist ; 
and though the cession of Heligoland met with 
strong opposition at the time and in the light of 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 289 

recent developments appears even more regret- 
table, yet the solid benefits received in exchange 
should more than counterbalance the loss. 

In the same year, by an agreement with France, 
our protectorate of Zanzibar, and our sphere of 
influence in the Hausa States and Bornu, were 
recognised by that country, while we in return 
recognised the French protectorate of Madagascar 
and her claims to the Sahara. Meanwhile, 
British differences with Portugal had also been 
settled, though not so amicably. Portugal had 
put forward claims to all the territories lying 
between Angola on the west and Mozambique on 
the east, and these claims were recognised by 
France and Germany in 1886. Such pretensions 
it was impossible to admit, and Lord Salisbury 
at once protested against " any claims not 
founded upon occupation." He also informed 
the Portuguese Government that the Zambesi 
must be regarded as the natural northern limit of 
British South Africa. In 1889, the charter 
granted to the British South Africa Company for 
the development of what is now Rhodesia 
occasioned fresh disputes with the Portuguese, 
who made further efforts to assert their claims 
in the Zambesi region. Finally, the news that 
an expedition had been despatched to the Shire 
highlands compelled Lord Salisbury to send an 
ultimatum to Lisbon, and the expedition was 
disavowed and withdrawn. Prolonged negotia- 
tions followed, resulting in a convention by 
which, while consideration was given to the just 

c. u 



290 THE CECILS 

claims of Portugal, the frontiers of Rhodesia 
were defined and Nyasaland secured for Great 
Britain. 

" The best justification of Lord Salisbury's 
policy between 1885 and 1892/' says a writer in 
the Quarterly Review,^ " is that he found Great 
Britain confronted by a hostile European coahtion, 
a prey to innumerable humiliations and perplexi- 
ties and on the brink of war, and that he left 
her at peace, enjoying the friendship of all 
the great Powers, and pursuing her Imperial 
course with unfettered hands and undiminished 
lustre." 

The Conservative Government came to a natural 
end at the close of the session of 1892, and at 
the general election the Opposition were returned 
with a majority of forty. Lord Salisbury 
accordingly gave place to Gladstone, whose second 
Home Rule Bill was passed by the House of 
Commons in 1893 and rejected by a majority 
of 419 against 41 in the House of Lords. 
Gladstone did not venture to appeal to the country, 
which heartily approved of the action of the 
Peers, and the Liberal Government remained in 
ofhce until 1895, when it was defeated on a snap 
division on the Cordite Vote (June 21st). Lord 
Rosebery, who had succeeded Gladstone as 
Prime Minister in the previous year, at once 
resigned, and Lord Salisbury was summoned to 
form an administration for the third time. 

He was now able to secure the co-operation of 

^ October 1902, p. 665. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 291 

the Liberal Unionist leaders, who had drawn closer 
to the Conservatives during the past three years, 
and with their aid he formed the strongest and 
most successful Government of modern times. 
He again went to the Foreign Office, while 
Mr. Balfour led the House of Commons, Sir 
Michael Hicks-Beach was Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, the Duke of Devonshire, President 
of the Council, Mr. Goschen, First Lord of the 
Admiralty, and Mr. Chamberlain, Colonial 
Secretary. Mr. Balfour's brother, Gerald, was 
Secretary for Ireland, and the Government con- 
tinued their Irish policy by two excellent measures, 
the Irish Local Government Bill (1898), and the 
Bill which established the new Department of 
Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland 
(1899). They also passed a number of other 
useful Bills, the most important being the 
Workmen's Compensation Bill of 1897. 

Lord Salisbury's share in initiating and carrying 
through domestic legislation cannot at present be 
determined. It is certain that the Foreign Office 
occupied the greater part of his time. Indeed, 
the experience of these years is enough to prove 
that no Prime Minister should, in the future, be 
his own Foreign Secretary. The duties of that 
office are too arduous and too engrossing to be 
combined with the adequate supervision of the 
work of the Cabinet as a whole. It was at this 
point that Lord Salisbury failed. Instead of 
being personally responsible for every department 
of State, he allowed his colleagues to go their 

U 2 



292 THE CECILS 

own way, without attempting to guide them. 
" He himself," says Lord Robert Cecil/ " was 
very averse to collaboration, and it was natural 
for him to think that his colleagues would equally 
dislike it. He did his own work best when left 
entirely to himself. He had no fear of respon- 
sibility, and it only hindered him to have to 
explain to others the reasons of his actions. 
The plan which suited him best he assumed to 
be the best for others also." But although the 
result of this defect in administration was a 
certain lack of cohesion in the policy of the 
Government, its success as a whole was remark- 
able. 

In the domain of foreign policy, Lord Salisbury 
set the seal to his previous achievements, and for 
many years before his death he was recognised 
as the first statesman in Europe. Through these 
eventful years he threw the whole of his immense 
influence into the scale on the side of peace and 
in favour of arbitration, and his record is one 
of which he might well be proud. 

He took office at a critical moment. The 
massacres in Armenia had roused public opinion 
to such a pitch of horror that, in view of the 
obstructive attitude of Russia, and the indifference 
of the other Powers to anything but their own 
interests, it seems to be clear that Lord Kimberley 
had decided to apply coercion to the Sultan 
unaided, and that war was, in fact, imminent. 
But although Lord Salisbury was a " sincere 

1 Monthly Review, October, 1903. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 293 

sympathiser with the Christians of Turkey, and 
regarded the Government of that country as 
inimical to civihsation," ^ he was not prepared 
to undertake a crusade on their behalf in the 
face of Europe. At the Guildhall banquet 
(November 9th), however, he denounced the 
Sultan in very strong terms, and used threatening 
language, which drew an angry protest from 
Abdul Hamid. Lord Salisbury never made threats 
which he did not intend to carry out, but on the 
present occasion no action followed, and it is 
understood that another Power had promised to 
co-operate with Great Britain, but afterwards 
withdrew. It was certainly not his fault that 
the tedious negotiations of the next eighteen 
months resulted only in a scheme of paper reform 
which was never put into force. 

In the settlement of the Cretan question he 
achieved more success, and the result of his 
unwearied patience and skilful leading of the 
Concert of Europe was that an autonomous 
regime, with Prince George of Greece as Governor, 
was set up in Crete at the end of 1898, and the 
island entered on a period of unwonted peace 
and prosperity. It was Lord Salisbury who 
reorganised the Concert as a great engine of peace 
— " the embryo of the only possible structure of 
Europe which can save civilisation from the 
effects of a disastrous war." At the same time 
he recognised its cumbrous methods, and quoted, 
with approbation, the remark that " the Cretans 

1 The late Canon MacCoU in The Spectator, August 29th, 1903. 



294 THE CECILS 

may be evil beasts, but the Powers are certainly 
slow bellies." ^ 

Meanwhile, England had been on the brink of 
war both with Germany and with the United 
States. The German Emperor's telegram to 
Kruger after the Jameson Raid excited extra- 
ordinary indignation in England, but the prompt 
mobilisation of a fl5^ing squadron, and other 
military and naval precautions, were sufficient 
to show that German intervention in South 
Africa would not be permitted, and the incident 
closed. It is probable that the mobilisation may 
have been ordered with a view to impressing 
the United States as well as Germany. A fort- 
night before the Jameson Raid (December 17th, 
1895), President Cleveland had sent to Con- 
gress a preposterous message concerning the 
Venezuelan boundary question, in which he 
practically threatened England with war. The 
first shock of surprise was followed by such an 
exacerbation of feeling on both sides of the 
Atlantic, that for some days it seemed as though 
hostilities could not be avoided. Lord Salisbury, 
however, preserved an imperturbable attitude, 
the excitement died dov/n, and eventually an 
international commission was appointed which 
decided the matter almost entirely in favour of 
Great Britain. Following upon this award, Lord 
Salisbury proposed a general treaty of arbitration 
with the United States, and this was actually 

^ Sir Mountstuart Grant-Duff's Notes from a Diary, February 23rd, 
1897. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 295 

negotiated by Sir Julian Pauncefote and signed 
on January nth, 1897. The Senate, however, 
refused to ratify it, and the main' result of the 
negotiations was to revive anti-British feeling 
in the States. In spite of this rebuff. Lord 
Salisbury exerted himself unremittingly to 
establish more cordial relations between the two 
countries. On the outbreak of the Spanish- 
American war, in 1898, it was his firm attitude 
which prevented European intervention ; and 
he gave further practical proof of friendship by 
resigning to the United States, in the Samoa 
Convention of 1899, certain Samoan islands, thus, 
in effect, making them a " free gift of the finest 
harbour in the Pacific." ^ Finally, the Hay- 
Pauncefote Treaty, signed in 1900, enabled the 
United States to build the Panama Canal, with 
the results which we all know. The outcome of 
his endeavours was undoubtedly to improve the 
official relations between London and Washington, 
and if he did not achieve all that he hoped, his 
efforts " will always rank brightly among the 
lofty strivings by which the whole of his long 
and fruitful career has been inspired." ^ 

Turning to events in the Far East, one cannot 
help feeling that Lord Salisbury felt less at home 
in this sphere, and that he probably took little 
interest in it. When Germany seized Kiao Chau, 
and Russia, in defiance of treaty rights and specific 
assurances, took possession of Port Arthur, he 

1 H. Whales, The Third Salisbury Administration, p. loi. 

2 Quarterly Review, October, 1902, p. 675. 



296 THE CECILS 

protested mildly and then tamely acquiesced ; 
while his withdrawal of British ships from Port 
Arthur, where they had every right to be, at 
the bidding of Russia, is very difftcult to defend. 
Nor were these diplomatic reverses counterbalanced 
by the acquisition of Wei-Hai-Wei. On the 
other hand, he obtained the extension of the 
limits of Hong Kong; the opening up of the 
inland waters of China to foreign trade and the 
assurance that the Yangtse basin should not be 
alienated ; and many very valuable railway 
concessions. He fought consistently for " the 
open door," and successfully opposed any granting 
of exclusive or differential rights. Lord Salisbury, 
indeed, " redressed the partial failure of his 
efforts in international diplomacy by the triumphs 
won, in spite of the influence of powerful rivals, 
in the field of commercial concessions and 
additional trade advantages." ^ Moreover, the 
signature of the Anglo - Russian agreement 
(April 28th, 1899) marked the beginning of a 
better understanding with Russia, which bore 
fruit later. 

Of the success of the Government's Egyptian 
policy, which resulted in the reconquest of the 
Sudan and the extension of peaceful civilisation 
to that unfortunate province, its strongest 
opponents can now entertain no doubt. While 
strongly approving of this policy. Lord Salisbury 
told Lord Cranbrook that he could " claim no 
share in it " — a strange admission for a Prime 

1 Whates, p. 164. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 297 

Minister to make. He added, however, that it 
was he who " insisted upon the employment of 
Kitchener, much against the grain of the great 
men in London." ^ The battle of Omdurman 
(September 2nd, 1898) was followed by the 
Fashoda incident, which brought France and 
England to the verge of war. In the firm attitude 
which he took up in this matter, Lord Salisbury 
received the support of the whole nation, and the 
tact with which he handled the delicate situation 
provided France with as easy a way of retreat 
as the circumstances allowed. Finally, an agree- 
ment was arrived at by which France withdrew 
all claims to the Nile Valle}^ ; and at the same time 
by the Niger Convention, signed in June, 1898, 
but not ratified during the Fashoda dispute, the 
boundaries of British and French territories in 
West Africa were satisfactorily settled. The way 
was thus paved for the more comprehensive 
agreement with France, which was concluded 
by Lord Lansdowne in 1904. 

Lord Salisbury had thus placed to his credit 
another fine diplomatic achievement. War was 
a thing hateful to him, and he had worked 
unceasingly and with success to prevent a breach 
of the peace. Thus, when the Boer war broke 
out in October, 1899, though he realised that it 
was unavoidable and never for a moment doubted 
the justice of our cause, it came to him, neverthe- 
less, as a grievous blow. In the actual conduct 
of the dispute with Kruger, he was not directly 

1 Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 368. 



298 THE CECILS 

concerned, but he cannot avoid some share of 
responsibihty for the early disasters of the war. 
Had he exercised a stricter supervision over his 
colleagues, he would have been able to insist 
that the information supplied to the War Office 
by the Intelligence Department and from other 
sources was not ignored and that adequate 
preparations were made. But when once 
hostilities broke out he did signal service to the 
nation by making it clear to other Powers that 
no intervention would be allowed. 

To this public anxiety was added an over- 
whelming private sorrow — the death of his wife 
(November 20th, 1899). To Lady Salisbury he 
was united in the closest bonds of affection and 
comradeship. He gave her his unreserved con- 
fidence, and looked to her for encouragement 
and help in political and other matters, relying 
on her alert intelligence, her keen sense of humour, 
her sound common sense and her ability to see 
the bright side of things. Though little known 
outside a select circle, she was the object of 
deepest affection to her friends and her family, 
and her influence on all who were admitted to 
her intimacy is known to have been extraordinary. 
How much Lord Salisbury himself owed to her, 
politically, was shown at the time of his election 
as leader of the party in the House of Lords, 
when the Duke of Richmond said to him : "If 
Lady Salisbury were the Duchess of Richmond, 
you would never have been leader." ^ 

1 Life of Lord Cranbrook, II. 163. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 299 

In the summer of 1900 the Boxer outbreak 
and the siege of the legations in Pekin necessi- 
tated a revival of the Concert of Europe in a 
new sphere, and still further increased the work 
and anxieties of the Foreign Secretary. In 
September the Government dissolved Parliament, 
and at the " khaki election," which followed. 
Lord Salisbury secured a majority of 134. Had 
he consulted his own wishes, he would now have 
retired from public life. " He was borne down 
with domestic grief and physical weakness ; and 
yet he felt himself unable to lay down his burden 
lest the enemies of his country should take courage 
from the ministerial and electoral difficulties 
that might, and indeed did, follow his resignation. 
He remained at his post, and his countrymen 
honoured his determination. But very few of 
them knew what the effort was costing him, and 
how much sorer was the self-sacrifice involved in 
holding office in 1900 than in resigning it thirty- 
three years before." ^ 

He did, however, hand over the direction of 
the Foreign Office to Lord Lansdowne, taking 
himself the post of Lord Privy Seal. But he 

1 Lord R. Cecil in the Monthly Review, October, 1903. After the 
election of 1900, the Government contained so many members and 
connections of the Cecil family that it was nicknamed " The Hotel 
Cecil, Unlimited " — thus recalling the " Regnum Caecilianum " of 
300 years before. In addition to Viscount Cranborne (Under-Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs), Mr. A. J. Balfour (First Lord of the Treasury), and 
Mr. Gerald Balfour (President of the Board of Trade), one of Lord 
Salisbury's daughters was married to Lord Selborne (First Lord of the 
Admiralty), and one of his nieces, Mary Beresford-Hope, was the wife 
of Mr. J. W. Lowther, then Chairman of Ways and Means, and now 
Speaker. 



300 THE CECILS 

maintained a special interest in foreign affairs, 
and the policy which resulted in the Japanese 
Alliance of 1902 was approved of, and controlled 
by him. 

The death of Queen Victoria, in January, 1901, 
was another break with the past, and to few of 
her subjects can the sense of personal loss have 
been greater than to Lord Salisbury. Following 
the example of his illustrious ancestor, this 
" greater Cecil of a greater Queen " served his 
Sovereign with a devotion and loyalty which 
won her utmost confidence and esteem. Bishop 
Boyd-Carpenter records that she " spoke with 
admiration of Lord Salisbury, as of one in whom 
she had great confidence. The impression left 
on my mind was that she gave him, if not the 
highest, an equal place with the highest among 
her ministers." He adds that " the two Prime 
Ministers who held high place in her mind, 
were Sir Robert Peel and Lord Salisbury," and 
she thought the latter " greater than Lord 
Beaconsfield." ^ 

On the conclusion of peace with the Boers 
(May 31st, 1902), there was no longer any valid 
reason to defer his retirement, though, if it had 
not been for King Edward's unfortunate illness, 
he would have remained Prime Minister until 
after the Coronation. On July nth he placed 
his resignation in the hands of the King, who 
was then convalescent, and thus ended his long 

1 Some Pages of My Life, by the Rt. Rev. W. Boyd-Carpenter, late 
Bishop of Ripon. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 301 

premiership of nearly fourteen years. He was 
succeeded as Prime Minister by Mr. Balfour. 

For many years his health had been gradually 
failing, and on several occasions he had been 
obliged to go abroad — to Chateau Cecil at Puys, 
near Dieppe, to his villa at Beaulieu, to Roy at or 
elsewhere — to recoup, leaving the conduct of 
the Foreign Office to Mr. Balfour. At Whitsuntide, 
1903, he had an acute attack of nephritis, accom- 
panied by heart weakness, from which he never 
really recovered, and on August 22nd his death 
occurred at Hatfield. There, in the church which 
contains the ashes of so many of his ancestors, 
he lies buried by the side of his wife. 

" Never was a life more complete," said Lord 
Rosebery,^ summing up the sentiments of the 
nation with his usual felicity. " We can speak 
of him without a feeling of regret. Happy those 
who have so long mixed in public life of whom 
that may be said." 

No one can read the story of Lord Salisbury's 
life, or study his character, without being con- 
stantly reminded of his great ancestor. Lord 
Burghley. Intense devotion to their Queen, 
single-hearted patriotism, freedom from personal 
ambition, Olympian serenity and aloofness, genuine 
piety, strong family affection, these and many 
other characteristics are common to the Eliza- 
bethan and to the Victorian statesman. 

Lord Salisbury's personal reserve and hatred 

1 Speech at the Oxford Union, November 14th, 1904. 



302 THE CECILS 

of publicity removed the details of his private 
life from the region of public comment, and, 
until the able pen of his daughter and secretary 
gives the long promised biography to the world, 
no truly adequate account of the man is possible. 
Yet the main features of his character are known. 
He was, above all, a profoundly religious man, 
and his chaplain has testified, " without any 
reservation whatever, that his life was a conse- 
crated life. Each day, whatever the pressure of 
work might be, he was to be seen taking part 
in the devotions in the little private chapel, 
where it was my privilege to administer." ^ Of 
the depth of his loyalty to the Queen we have 
already spoken, and to these two qualities, 
forming together the very springs of his nature, 
must be added his affection for his home and 
family. 

Like Lord Burghley, he made few intimate 
friends. His pleasure lay in the home circle, 
and he was never happier than when surrounded 
by his family. It was his greatest delight to 
gather round him on Sunday evenings as many 
members of the family as possible, and it is said 
that he was never seen to such advantage as 
on those occasions.^ It was, in fact, the universal 
testimony of his guests that he was seen at his 
best in his own home. In early days, soon after 
his accession to the title. Bishop Wilberforce 
met Gladstone at Hatfield, and they agreed 

1 Report of Sermon by the Rev. E. A. Smith, Times, August 24, 1903. 

2 Speech of Lord Rosebery, November 14th, 1904. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 303 

that they " never saw a more perfect host." 
The Bishop also gives a gUmpse of the house and 
its inmates : "I particularly enjoyed my Hatfield 
visit," he writes/ " The house is perfect, and 
the park very striking of its kind. But the 
great pleasure was the inmates, as hearty and 
kind as possible, and he full of high patriotic 
views." He was much impressed by his host's 
lofty ideals — " so fair, so kind, so simple and 
high-minded." - 

An extremely shy man, Lord Salisbury went 
little into society, and though he and his wife 
did their duty nobly, and successfully, at all the 
great gatherings and entertainments necessitated 
by his position, they both hated functions of all 
kinds. Both of them, too, despised appearances, 
and cared nothing for such things as fine clothes or 
smart carriages, though they could assume pomp 
when necessary, and on occasions Lady Salisbury 
might be seen driving about the county in a 
chariot with four horses and outriders. Lord 
Salisbury's reserve and silence made him, at times, 
a most embarrassing neighbour at a public dinner 
or other function, for he had no small-talk, and 
made no effort to maintain any general conversa- 
tion. Yet, when he was at ease among friends, 
his conversational powers were considerable. 
" His qualities as a talker are not familiarly 
known," wrote Mr. G. W. E. Russell.' " He is 



1 To Sir C. Anderson, November 26th, 1868. 

2 Life of Wilberforce, July i6th, 1872. 

s Collections and Recollections, ist Series. 



304 THE CECILS 

painfully shy, and at a club or in a large party 
undergoes the torments of the lost, yet no one 
can listen, even casually, to his conversation, 
without appreciating the fine manner, full both 
of dignity and of courtesy : the utter freedom 
from pomposity, formality, or self-assertion, and 
the agreeable dash of genuine cynicism which 
modifies, though it does not mask, the flavour of 
his fun." 

As a public speaker, he was impressive and 
weighty, and was capable of fine flights of 
eloquence. But, in spite of the literary perfection 
of his style, he did not rise to the first rank as 
an orator, despising the tricks of rhetoric, and 
refusing to practise the arts which win popular 
applause. 

He had an immense power of sustained work, 
and is said to have sat at his desk for thirteen 
hours out of twenty-four. All his vast corre- 
spondence was written by his own hand, and as 
he was extremely neat and methodical in his ways, 
his papers — the bulk of which is enormous — 
were kept in immaculate order. He was a most 
considerate landlord, but he left the management 
of his estates chiefly to his wife. Unlike his 
father, he confessed that he was " entirely 
ignorant of practical agriculture, and was hardly 
able to distinguish a turnip from a cow." His 
only form of sport was rabbit shooting with 
ferrets, at which he was proficient. His great 
hobby, however, was science, and much of his 
leisure was spent in his laboratory at Hatfield. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 305 

From his early days chemistry fascinated him ; 
later on he took up electricity, and when electric 
light was installed at Hatfield he planned and 
superintended the work, of which he was 
immensely proud. Of his article on photography, 
which appeared in the Quarterly Review (October, 
1864), it has been said : " There is no more lucid 
account of the chemistry of photography extant. 
Even at this distance of time, it may be read in 
preference to many a modern manual. Full of 
valuable suggestion, it anticipates not a few of 
the recent artistic and scientific achievements of 
photography." ^ In 1894 the British Association 
acknowledged his scientific attainments by electing 
him President, and he delivered a thoughtful and 
characteristic address on " Evolution." 

As a statesman he will live in history as one 
of the greatest of the foreign ministers of Great 
Britain. In domestic legislation he left little 
mark. For he did not share the strange belief, 
which grew up in the nineteenth century and 
persists, in spite of all experience, to this day, 
that social evils can be remedied by revolutionary 
Acts of Parliament. Such reforms as " commend 
themselves to sober and patriotic opinion, and 
leave no resentment behind," he was always willing 
and anxious to further, but he held that " the 
proper legislative work of Parliament was to 
deal with matters on which parties do not 
contend," and that "it is detained from its 
normal labours by the perpetual intrusion of 

1 Quarterly Review, January, 1904, p. 299. 

c. X 



3o6 THE CECILS 

revolutionary projects." He laid it down as 
the central doctrine of Conservatism " that it is 
better to endure almost any political evil than 
to risk a breach of the historic continuity of 
government." Inspired by such principles, it was 
natural that he should oppose Home Rule with 
relentless energy, and the nation owes him a 
great debt of gratitude for the skill and tact 
with which he succeeded in welding the Conserva- 
tives and the Liberal Unionists into a homogeneous 
party, " the most formidable combination for the 
defence of constitutional principles and social 
justice known to modern history." ^ 

In other respects the domestic record of his 
administrations is one of which no Prime Minister 
need be ashamed, but the supreme value of his 
tenure of power lies in the fact that he gave to 
the country a long period of internal peace and 
prosperity in which to recover from (and to 
prepare for) the disturbance and unrest inseparable 
from the advent of a Radical Government. 

It is generally recognised that he regarded 
Pitt and Castlereagh as models upon whom he 
formed his own principles. That he learnt much 
from his study of those great men cannot be 
doubted, and it is true that very much of what 
he wrote of them may be applied to himself. 
Yet it is a striking fact that the very qualities 
which he praises in them — the cautious, patient, 
unemotional diplomacy, the " calm, cold self- 
contained temperament " of Castlereagh, the 

' Quarterly Review, October, 1902, p. 654. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 307 

" pure and self-denying patriotism," and the 
lofty morality of Pitt — were also the distinguishing 
characteristics of Lord Burghley. Hereditary 
tendency may, therefore, have had more to do 
with the development of his character than 
conscious discipleship. Moreover, the task which 
he successfully accomplished was not unlike that 
which had confronted his ancestor. For it was 
his to guide the nation safely through a period 
of extreme danger, at the same time enormously 
increasing her prestige and extending her posses- 
sions. And just as Burghley was compelled to 
throw cold water on the hot-heads, whose love 
of adventure, noble in itself, could not fail to 
bring about the war which it was his life-long 
labour to avoid ; so when the Jingoes clamoured 
for reckless action. Lord Salisbury remained cool 
and imperturbable, hearing, no doubt, amid the 
tumult, ancestral voices prophesying war. As he 
wrote of Castlereagh, " no tinge of that enthusiastic 
temper which leads men to overhunt a beaten 
enemy, to drive a good cause to excess, to swear 
allegiance to a formula, or to pursue an imprac- 
ticable ideal, ever threw its shadow upon his 
serene, impassive intelligence." Like Castlereagh, 
too — and again like Lord Burghley — " he had 
not the talents that captivate the imagination, 
or the warmth of sympathy that kindles love. 
Men felt to him as to the pilot who had weathered 
an appalling storm, the physician who had 
mastered a terrible malady. They recognised 
his ability, and were glad in a moment of danger 

X 2 



3o8 THE CECILS 

to have such a counsellor at hand ; but they do 
not appear to have been drawn to him by the 
bonds of that intense personal devotion which 
has united so many great statesmen with their 
political supporters." 

But if he did not evoke the enthusiasm or the 
love of the public — and he made no effort to do 
so — he inspired complete confidence. The nation 
felt that in his hands the honour and interests 
of the Empire were safe. And among his 
colleagues he aroused unwavering loyalty and 
esteem. " My relations with Salisbury are 
delightful," wrote Lord Lytton/ when he was 
Viceroy of India. " He is so generous, so loyal, 
so considerate and sympathising, that it is a 
real privilege to work with him." His own 
loyalty and patriotism were so intense, his aims 
so pure, his disinterestedness so unassailable, 
that he set a noble example to all his followers, 
and we may truly say of him, as he said of Pitt : 
' ' the lapse of years only brings out in brighter 
lustre the grandeur of his intellect and the loftiness 
of his character." 

Lord Salisbury was succeeded by his eldest 
son, James, Viscount Cranborne. The fourth 
Marquess was born in 1861, and was educated 
at Eton and University College, Oxford. He 
sat in Parliament, first for the Darwen division 
(1885 — 1892), and afterwards for Rochester 
(1893 — 1903). In the South African War he 

1 Letters of Robert, Earl of Lytton, II. 32. 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 309 

served as Lieut. -Colonel of the 4th Battalion, 
Bedfordshire Regiment, and was mentioned in 
despatches and made C.B. On his return to 
England he was appointed Under-Secretary for 
Foreign Affairs in the ministry of 1900, and three 
years later, on succeeding to the title, he was 
sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord 
Privy Seal. In 1905 he acted for a short time as 
President of the Board of Trade, and in 1909 was 
created G.C.V.O. He married, in 1887, Lady Cicely 
Alice Gore, daughter of the Earl of Arran, and has 
two sons and two daughters, the elder of whom 
has married the Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore, M.P. 

The third Marquess left four more sons and 
two daughters, of whom the elder. Lady Beatrix 
Maud Cecil, is now the Countess of Selborne, 
while Lady Gwendolen, who was her father's 
secretary and is writing his life, remains unmarried. 
The sons are : the Rev. Lord William Cecil (born 
1863), Rector of Hatfield and Rural Dean of 
Hertford ; he married Lady Florence Bootle- 
Wilbraham, daughter of the Earl of Lathom, 
and has seven children : Lord Robert Cecil 
(born 1864), K.C., M.P. for Hitchin, who married 
Lady Eleanor Lamb ton, daughter of the Earl 
of Durham : Colonel Lord Edward Cecil (born 
1867), D.S.O., who has had a brilliant career in 
the Army, and has held various posts in the 
Egyptian Government ; he married a daughter 
of Admiral Maxse, and has two children : and 
Lord Hugh Cecil (born 1869), LL.D., M.P. for 
Oxford University, unmarried. 



310 THE CECILS 

Such is the record of the Cecils, and it is one 
of which any family may be proud. For though 
neither branch of the family did much to dis- 
tinguish itself during the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, yet to have produced three 
such statesmen as Lord Burghley, Robert, Earl 
of Salisbury, and the third Marquess of Salisbury, 
is to have deserved well of the nation. And 
surely never were such men and the ideals they 
represent more needed than at the present day. 
Our English tradition, which impels the heir to 
a great name to devote his life to the service of 
his country, and sets ever before him the highest 
standard of conduct both in public and private 
life, is an asset to the nation of incalculable value. 
It is the growth of centuries ; it may be destroyed 
in a generation. And democracy is essentially 
destructive. All special rights and privileges are 
an abomination to it, and the accompanying duties 
and responsibilities it ignores and decries. Nor 
does it stop to enquire whether such privileges 
are, on the whole, good or bad for the nation. 
It is enough that they exist ; and better that 
the whole population should grovel together in 
the ditch than that any of its members should 
occupy a " privileged " position on the bank, 
however much they may thereby be enabled to 
help their less fortunate fellows. Against these 
forces of destruction families such as the Cecils 
present a powerful bulwark. Staunch upholders 
of the Church and the Constitution ; keenly 
interested, as landlords, in the cultivation and 



THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 311 

maintenance of their estates and the welfare of 
their tenants ; patriots whose disinterestedness 
is above suspicion ; above all, men of the highest 
personal integrity — can the nation afford to 
throw away their willing service at the bidding 
of those to whom tradition means nothing and 
the " hereditary principle " is a mere anachronism ? 
As far as the Cecil family is concerned, its 
energies are far from exhausted. There is cer- 
tainly plenty of talent left, and with the fine 
traditions of public service to inspire them, it 
is not unreasonable to hope that Cecils may yet 
arise whose achievements will equal, if they do 
not eclipse, those of their great ancestors. 



APPENDIX 

THE MANUSCRIPTS AT HATFIELD 

The following account of the origin and contents of 
the famous Hatfield MSS., which have provided so much 
material for the foregoing pages, is condensed in the 
main from the Introduction to the first volume of the 
Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Hon. the Marquis 
of Salisbury, K.G., etc., etc., etc., preserved at Hatfield 
House, Hertfordshire, published for the Historical MSS. 
Commission (1883), 

In early times, before the State Paper Office was 
established in 1578, each of the principal Secretaries of 
State, of whom there were always two, and sometimes 
three, had the custody of the documents and correspon- 
dence which passed through his hands, and their future 
destination depended in great measure " upon accident, 
upon the care or negligence of the individual or of his 
clerks, and above all, upon the good or evil fate which 
awaited the Secretary when he resigned his Seals." It 
was thus a mere chance whether the documents were 
preserved intact, or whether, as frequently happened, they 
were dispersed or destroyed. 

Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury, made an effort 
to collect all his father's papers and others in his care, 
and place them together in an official library at Whitehall. 
On his death in 1612 a warrant was issued directing all 
his papers to be delivered to the Keepers of the Records, 
who had been appointed two years before to take charge 
of " Papers and Records concerning matters of State 
and Council," One of these Keepers, Thomas Wilson, 



314 APPENDIX 

in a memorial made about the year 1613, stated that 
there were then two sorts of papers in the State Paper 
Office, " those that have been long kept at Whitehall, 
and those brought from Salisbury House by himself 
smce the Lord Treasurer's decease, which were far the 
greater in number." In spite of this transfer, however, 
a large quantity of papers must have been retained 
by the secretaries of the late Lord Treasurer ; and of 
these one portion is preserved at Hatfield, while the 
other forms the most important part of the Lansdowne 
MSS. at the British Museum. 

The collection at Hatfield, which was pronounced by 
Mr. Brewer to be "perhaps the largest, certainly the most 
valuable, of any private collection in this kingdom," 
consists of upwards of 30,000 documents, the great 
majority of which are bound up in 210 large volumes. 
Many of these papers have been discovered in recent 
times through researches instituted by the second 
Marquess of Salisbury, and also by the late Marquess. 
The documents may be divided into two classes, the 
first of which comprises grants from the Crown, Privy 
Seals, and other Records of a strictly legal character, 
together with various illuminated manuscripts, theological 
treatises, rolls of genealogy, common-place books, plans, 
charts, etc. The second consists of manuscripts of a 
more directly historical nature, as State Papers, treaties, 
despatches, correspondence of public personages, and 
political memoranda. The Commissioners on Historical 
Manuscripts have expressed an opinion that the value 
and extent of the correspondence, " to which every 
person of any note at the time contributed, may be 
judged from the fact, that scarcely a day passes in any 
year from the accession of Edward VI. to the close of 
the century [and for many years beyond], which does not 
produce one or more letters connected with passing 
events, and generally from those whose rank and position 



APPENDIX 315 

enabled them to furnish the most correct and authentic 
intelHgence. In these papers the history of the times 
writes itself off from day to day, and almost from hour 
to hour, with the minuteness of a daily journal, but with 
a precision to which no ordinary journal could make 
any pretence." 

Lord Burghley's papers illustrate the times from the 
beginning of his ministry, on the accession of Queen 
Elizabeth, to his death in 1598. Those of his son, Sir 
Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, which are even 
more voluminous than his father's, continue the record 
to the date of his death in 1612. The papers of Sir Walter 
Raleigh and of the Earl of Essex are also among the 
manuscripts at Hatfield. 

Two large volumes of selections from these documents 
were published in the eighteenth century : the first 
(1542 — 1570) edited by the Rev. Samuel Haynes and 
published in 1740 ; and the second (1571 — 1596) edited 
by the Rev. W. Murdin and published in 1759. In these 
volumes the documents given are printed in extenso, 
but they have been superseded for most purposes by the 
Calendars issued by the Historical Manuscripts Com- 
mission. Of these twelve have now been published, 
containing resumes of papers up to the year 1602. Many 
historians have had access to the later papers, the most 
important for the purpose of the present volume being 
Professor Gardiner, Mr. Edwards for his Life of Raleigh, 
Professor Brewer for his article on " Hatfield House," 
so often quoted, and Mr. Dalton for his Life of Viscount 
Wimbledon, 

The papers of the late Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield 
are said to rival in interest and importance those of 
Lord Burghley and his son, but at present they are not 
accessible to the public. 



INDEX 



Alderson, Georgina Caroline, Marchioness of Salisbury, 248, 298 

Alenfon, Duke of, 91 

Alington, Sir Giles, loi note 

AUington, Hugh, 7, 14 

Allt yr Ynys, the Cecils of, 2, 4 — 6 

Armada, the, defeated, 68 

Armenian massacres, 292 

Ascham, Roger, 16, 20 

Anjou, Duke of, 60 

Bacon, Anthony, 70, 154, 156, 157, 158, 161 

Bacon, Francis, 16, 20, 70, 153, 154, 155, 156, 158, 191, 214, 215 

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 16, 20 

Bacon, Lady (Anne Cooke), 20, 30 

Balfour, Arthur James, 243, 280, 285, 286, 291, 299 note, 301 

Balfour, Lady Blanche, 243, 245 

Balfour, Gerald, 291, 299 note 

Bismarck, Prince, 272, 288 

Beaconsfield, Lord. See Disraeli. 

Beresford-Hope, Alexander, 244 note, 249 

Beresford-Hope, Lady Mildred, 243, 244, 245 

Beresford-Hope, Mary (Mrs. Lowther), 299 

Bennet, Annabella, Countess of Exeter, 137 

Bennet, Frances, Countess of Salisbury, 230 

Berkshire, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 123 

Berlin, Congress and Treaty of, 270 — 274 

Berwick, Treaty of, 222 

Bodleian Library, 161 

Bodley, Sir Thomas, 160, 218 

Boer War, 297, 298 

Bootle-Wilbraham, Lady Florence (Lady William Cecil), 309 

Borough, Sir John, 150 

Boxer outbreak, 299 

British East Africa Company, 288 

British South Africa Company, 289 

Brooke, Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Cecil, 166 

Brown, " Capability," 55 

Browne, Edmund, 10 note 

Brownists, the, 10 note, 70 

Brownlow, Elizabeth. Countess of Exeter, 137 

Brydges, Frances, Countess of Exeter, 100, 102 note, 124 note, 

128, 129 
Buckingham, Duke of, loi, 108, 112 — 115, 118, 119, 123, 227 



3i8 INDEX 

Burghley, Lord. See Cecil, William. 

Burghley, manor of, lo 

Burghley House, 33—35, 40, 53—55, 93. 131— 133. I35. 136, 138* 

143 
Bye Plot, the, 179 

Cadiz Expedition (1596), 161 

Cadiz Expedition (1625), 112 — iig 

Carleton, Sir Dudley, 107, 109, no 

Carnarvon, Lord, 255, 282 

Castlereagh, Lord, 306, 307 

Cavendish, Anne, Lady Rich, Countess of Exeter, 133 

Cecil family, pedigrees and early history, i sqq. ; arms, 4, 5 ; 

crests, 10 and note 
Cecil, Algernon (son of the second Earl of Salisbury), 226 
Cecil, Ann, Countess of Oxford, 43, 57—59, 69 
Cecil, Anne, Countess of Stamford, 123 
Cecil, Anne, Countess of Northumberland, 226 
Cecil, Lady Beatrix Maud, Countess of Selborne, 267, 299 note, 

309 

Cecil, Lady Blanche (Balfour), 243 

Cecil, Brownlow, eighth Earl of Exeter, 137, 138 

Cecil, Brownlow, ninth Earl of Exeter, 138 

Cecil, Brownlow, second Marquess of Exeter, 141 — 143 

Cecil, Brownlow, fourth Marquess of Exeter, 144 

Cecil, Catherine, Countess of Leicester, 227 

Cecil, Charles, Viscount Cranborne (son of the second Earl of 
Salisbury), 221, 226, 227 

Cecil, Charles (son of the third Earl of Salisbury), 231, 232 

Cecil, David, of Stamford, i, 2, 5, 7 — 12 

Cecil, David, third Earl of Exeter, 103 note, 131 

Cecil, Diana, Countess of Oxford, no note, 123 

Cecil, Dorothy, Lady Alington, loi note 

Cecil, General Sir Edward, Viscount Wimbledon, 93, 94, 210, 217, 
220; serves in the Low Countries, 103 — 105, 107, no, 119, 
120; his first marriage, 105 ; at the siege of Juliers, 106; 
his second marriage, 107 ; quarrels with Baron Dohna, 108, 
109; commands the expedition to Cadiz, 112 — 119; created 
Viscount Wimbledon, 115, 119; appointed Governor of 
Portsmouth, 119 ; his death, 120 

Cecil, Lord Edward, 309 

Cecil, Elizabeth, (daughter of Lord Burghley), 56, 63 

Cecil, Elizabeth, Lady Hatton, afterwards Lady Coke, loi, 217 

Cecil, Elizabeth, Countess of Berkshire, 123 

Cecil, Elizabeth, Countess of Devonshire, 133, 226 

Cecil, Elizabeth, Countess of Orrery, 137 

Cecil, Lady Emily, Marchioness of Westmeath, 240 

Cecil, Lieut. -Colonel Lord Eustace, 245 

Cecil, Frances, Countess of Shaftesbury, 131 

Cecil, Frances, Countess of Curaberland, 166 

Cecil, Frances, Lady Scudamore, 133, 134 

Cecil, Lady Georgiana, Lady Cowley, 141 note, 240 

Cecil, Lady Gwendolen, 309 



INDEX 319 



Cecil, Henry, tenth Earl and first Marquess of Exeter, 138 — 141 

Cecil, Lord Hugh, 309 

Cecil, James, third Earl of Salisbury, 227 — 230 

Cecil, James, fourth Earl of Salisbury, 230—232 

Cecil, James, fifth Earl of Salisbury, 233 

Cecil, James, sixth Earl of Salisbury, 233, 234 

Cecil, James, seventh Earl and first Marquess of Salisbury, 
235—237 

Cecil, James Gascoyne-, second Marquess of Salisbury, 240 — 245, 
249. 259 

Cecil, James, Viscount Cranborne, 245, 246, 254 

Cecil, James, fourth Marquess of Salisbury, 267, 299 note, 308, 309 

Cecil, Jane (mother of Lord Burghley), 10 note, 13, 33, 34, 53, 54, 
69 

Cecil, John, fourth Earl of Exeter, 131 

Cecil, John, fifth Earl of Exeter, 54, 135 — 137 

Cecil, John, sixth Earl of Exeter, 137 

Cecil, John, seventh Earl of Exeter, 137 

Cecil, Lord John Joicey-, 144, 145 

Cecil, Lucy, Marchioness of Winchester, 93, 105, 217 

Cecil, Lady Mildred (Beresford-Hope), 243, 244, 245 

Cecil, Richard (father of Lord Burghley), 10 — 13, 69 note 

Cecil, Sir Richard, of Wakerley, 93, 103 

Cecil, Sir Robert, first Earl of Salisbury, 6, 11 note, 43, 70, 78, 92, 
122, 125 ; Burghley 's last letters to him, 71 — 73 ; relations 
with his brother, 94, 95 ; helps his nephew Edward, 103 — 105 ; 
his birth and early life, 147, 148 ; his position at Court, 148, 
149 ; Bacon's opinion of him, 153, 154, 191, 214, 215. 
relations with the Bacons, 154 — 158 ; made Secretary, 157, 
169 ; relations with Essex, 158 — 166, 171 ; his marriage, 
166 ; goes on a mission to France, 169 ; correspondence with 
James, 171 — 176 ; created Earl of Salisbury, 177 ; relations 
with Raleigh, 179—184; his religious policy, 184 — 188; 
his work as Lord Treasurer, 189 — 192 ; his foreign policy, 
193 ; accepts a pension from Spain, 193, 194 ; his incor- 
ruptibility, 194 — 196 ; presents received by him, 196 — 201 : 
his personal tastes, 198 — 202 ; lampoons on him, 202, 203 ; 
entertains the King at Theobalds, 203 — 205 ; exchanges 
Theobalds for Hatfield, 204 — 206 ; rebuilds Hatfield, 207, 
208 ; his last illness and death, 209, 210 ; his confession of 
faith, 211, 212; slandered after his death, 213, 214; his 
character, 215 — 218 

Cecil, Robert (son of the second Earl of Salisbury), 226 

Cecil, Lord Robert, 283, 284, 292 

Cecil, Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-, third Marquess of Salis- 
bury ; his birth and education, 247 ; early years in Parlia- 
ment, 247 sqq. ; his marriage, 248, 249 ; his contributions to 
the Quarterly Review, 249, 250, 251, 255, 257, 275, 305 ; his 
views on Reform, 250, 251, 254, 255 ; his contests with 
Gladstone, 251 — 255 ; appointed Secretary for India, 255, 
resigns, 255, 256 ; succeeds to the title, 259 ; his action 
towards the Irish Church Disestablishment Bill, 260, 261 ; 
Chancellor of Oxford University, 262 ; aga'xi Secretary for 



320 INDEX 

India, 263, 264 ; his views on the Church, 264 ; his relations 
with Disraeli, 264 — 266 ; at the Conference of Constantinople 
267, 268 ; Gladstone's opinion of hira, 267, 278, 281 ; his 
relations with Lord Derby, 269, 270 ; Foreign Secretary, 
270 ; at the Berlin Congress, 270 — 273 ; succeeds Beacons- 
field as leader in the Lords, 274 ; on Home Rule, 276, 277, 

282, 283 ; Prime Minister, 279 ; his " blazing indiscretions," 

283, 284 ; his second administration, 285 — 290 ; his third 
administration, 290 — 299 ; defects of his ministry, 291, 292 ; 
death of his wife, 298 ; his fourth administration, 299, 300 ; 
resigns, 300 ; his death, 301 ; compared with Lord Burghley, 
301, 302, 307 ; personal characteristics, 301 — 305 ; his place 
as a statesman, 305 — 308 

Cecil, Sophia, wife of Henry Pierrepont, 141 note 
Cecil, Sir Thomas, first Earl of Exeter, 7, 20, 43, 44, 78, 121 ; his 
birth, 79 ; his adventures on the Continent, 80 — 88 ; his 
marriage, 89 ; appointed Governor of the Brill, 92 ; relations 
with his brother, 94, 95 ; succeeds as Lord Burghley, 96 ; 
appointed President of the North, 97 ; created Earl of 
Exeter, 100 ; his last years and death, 100 — 102 
Cecil, Thomas Chambers, 138 
Cecil, Lady Victoria, 143 

Cecil, William, second Earl of Exeter, 93, 107, 121 — 123 
Cecil, William, Lord Roos, 100, loi, 122, 124 — 130 
Cecil, William, second Earl of Salisbury, 166, 180, 210, 212, 

219 — 225 
Cecil, William, of Tewin (son of the second Earl of Salisbury), 226 
Cecil, William (son of the third Earl of Salisbury), 231 
Cecil, Colonel Lord William, 144 
Cecil, Rev. Lord William, 309 

Cecil, William Alleyne, third Marquess of Exeter, 143, 144 
Cecil, William Thomas Brownlow, fifth Marquess of Exeter, 54, 

55 and note, 145 
Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 4 — 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 122, 146, 152, 
160, 169, 172 ; his interest in genealogy and heraldry, i, 18 ; 
birth and education, 15, 16 ; his first marriage, 17 ; advance- 
ment at Court, 19, 21 ; second marriage, 20 ; in favour with 
Somerset, 21 — 23 ; appointed Secretary of State, 24 ; his 
behaviour to Somerset, 24—26 ; evades responsibility for 
Northumberland's plot, 29 ; his bad health, 28, 55 ; his 
position during Mary's reign, 30 — 32 ; his attitude to 
religious questions, 31, 70, 71 ; his relations with Elizabeth, 
32, 33 ; receives grants of land, 33 ; enlarges Burghley 
House, 33 — 35, 40, 53 — 55 ; Secretary of State under 
Elizabeth, 36 ; his share in the religious settlement of 1559, 
37 ; negotiates the Treaty of Edinburgh, 38 ; made Master 
of the Court of Wards, 38, 39 ; enlarges Cecil House, 40 ; 
builds Theobalds, 40—43 ; his children, 43 ; plots against 
him, 44, 45, 49, 50, 64 ; authorised use of torture, 47, 48 ; 
his magnanimity to opponents, 48 ; created Lord Burghley, 
51 ; made Lord Treasurer, 52 ; his expenses, 52, 53 ; meets 
Mary Queen of Scots at Buxton, ^^, 56 ; marriage of his 
daughter to the Earl of Oxford, 57 — 59 ; his encouragement 



INDEX 321 

of trade, 61 ; his treatment of Drake, 61 — 63 ; his disgrace 
after the death of Mary, 66, 67 ; death of his wife, 69 ; last 
letters to his son, 71 — 73 ; his death, 73 ; Elizabeth's afiection 
for him, 74 ; his policy and its results, 75, 76 ; personal 
characteristics, 76, 77 ; his property and will, 78 ; relations 
with his son Thomas, 79 — 89, 97 ; compared with the late 
Lord Salisbury, 301, 302, 307 

Cecil House, 40, 120 note 

Ceciles, the, of Burgundy, 4 

Chamberlain, Joseph, 291 

Charles I., 112, 222, 223, 224, 225 

Charles II., 228, 229 

Cheke, Sir John, 16, 17, 21, 24, 31 

Cheke, Mary, wife of Wilham Cecil, 17, 20 

Chelmsford, Lord, 244, 245 

Christian IV., King of Denmark, 203, 204 

Churchill, Lord Randolph, 279, 285 

Cleveland, President, 294 

Cobham, Lord, 166, 179, 180 

Coke, Sir Edward, loi, 155, 181 

Coningsby, Thomas, Lord, 134, 135 

Constantinople, Conference of, 267, 268 

Conway, Lord, 226 

Cooke, Sir Anthony, 20, 21, 31, 43 

Cooke, Mildred, wife of William Cecil, 20, 21, 43, 69 

Cope, Sir Walter, 183, 194, 212, 216 

Cottington, Lord, 221, 222 

Cranborne, manor of, 177 note 

Cranborne, Viscounts. See Cecil. 

Cranbrook, Lord (Gathome Hardy), 280, 296 

Crete, 293 

Cromwell, Oliver, 131 — 133 

Cumberland, Henry Clifford, Earl of, 166 

Cyssell. See Cecil. 

Davison, William, 66, 160, 172 

De la Hay, Paul, 5, 6 

Delany, Mrs., 233, 234 

Derby, fourteenth Earl of, 245, 255, 256, 262 

Derby, fifteenth Earl of, 246, 269 

Derby, Elizabeth, Countess of, 150 

De Ros, Lord. See Roos. 

De Spes, Guerau, 49, 50 

Devonshire, William, third Earl of, 227 

Devonshire, Duke of, 285, 291 

Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of, 235, 236 

Dicons, Alice, 9 

Disraeli, Benjamin (Lord Beaconsfield), 143, 242, 244, 253, 255, 

256, 263, 264, 266, 273, 274, 300 
Dohna, Baron, 108, 109 
Dolci, Carlo, 135 
Dorset, Earl of, 189, 213, 218 
Doughty, Thomas, 63 

C. Y 



322 INDEX 

Drake, Sir Francis, 6i — 63 

Drury, Diana, second wife of Sir Edward Cecil, 107 

Drury, Elizabeth, Countess of Exeter, 123, 124, 133 

Dryden, John, 123 note 

Dudley, Lord Guilford, 27 

Dudley, Lord Robert. See Leicester, Earl of. 

Edinburgh, Treaty of, 38 

Edward VII., 300 

Egerton, Elizabeth, Countess of Exeter, 124 note, 131 

Egerton, Sir Thomas, 162 

Elector Palatine, the, 107 — 109 

Elgin, Thomas Bruce, Earl of, 123 

EUzabeth, Queen, 32, 33, 36, 40, 41, 47, 52, 60, 66, 67, 74, 91, 97, 

147 — 150, 152, 155, 156, 172 — 176, 178, 206, 207 
Elizabeth, Princess, daughter of James I., 107 
Essex, Robert Devereux, second Earl of, 56 note, 70, 98, 114, 119, 

154. ^55. 158—165, 169, 171 
Essex, Walter Devereux, first Earl of, 56 note 
Essex, Countess of (Frances Walsingham), 162, 217 
jEssex, Countess of (Frances Howard), 219 
"Evelyn, John, 208 
Exeter, Earls and Marquesses of. See Cecil. 

FaKENHAM, Sir Wilham, 2 

Fane, Mary, Countess of Exeter, 133 

Fashoda incident, the, 297 

Felton, John, 47 

Fox, Charles James, 235, 236 

France, agreement with (1890), 289 ; the Fashoda incident, 297 ; 

agreement with (1904), 297 
Franchise Bill (1884), 277 

Gascoyne, Frances Mary, Marchioness of Salisbury, 241 — 243 

Gascoyne-Cecil. See Cecil. 

George III., 235 

Germany, agreement with (1890), 288 ; and the Jameson Raid, 

294 ; in China, 295 
Gibbons, Grinling, 135 
Giordano, Luca, 135 
Gladstone, W. E., 247, 248, 251 — 255, 259, 263, 266, 267, 274, 

275, 277 — 279, 281, 290, 302 
Gondomar, Count, 128 
Gordon, General, 279 

Gore, Lady Cicely Alice, Marchioness of Salisbury, 309 
Goschen, G. J. (afterwards Lord), 285, 291 
Grand Almonership, the, 54, 90 note 
Granville, Lord, 281, 288 
Gray, Master of, 172, 173 
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 87 
Grey, Lady Jane, 20, 27 
iGunpowder Plot, the, 185 



INDEX 323 

Hamilton, Elizabeth, Duchess of, Marchioness of Exeter, 141 

Hampton Court Conference, 187 

Harington, Sir John, 178, 203, 204 

Hartington, Lord. See Devonshire, Duke of. 

Hatfield House, 204, 206 — 209, 234, 242, 302, 303, 305 

Hatton, Sir Christopher, 34, 67 

Hatton, Frances, Lady Purbeck, loi 

Hatton, Sir William, loi 

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 295 

Heckington, Jane. See Cecil, Jane. 

Heligoland, 288, 289 

Heneage, Sir Thomas, 95 

Henry, Prince of Wales, 100, 106, 107, 220 

Hertford, Earl of. See Somerset. 

Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael (Lord St. Aldwyn), 280, 286, 291 — 

Hill, Mary Amelia, Marchioness of Salisbury, 235 — 240 

Hobart, Sir John, 99 

Hoby, Sir Thomas, 20 

Hoby, Lady (Elizabeth Cooke), 20, 48 

Hoggins, Sarah, Countess of Exeter, 140, 141 

Home Rule, 276, 277, 282, 283 ; Bills, 283, 285, 290 

Hong-Kong, 296 

Housing of the Working Classes Bill, 281 

Howard, Catherine, Countess of Salisbury, 218, 220 

Howard of Effingham, Lord, 167 

India, 255, 263, 264 

Irish Church Suspensory Bill, 259, 260 ; Disestablishment Bill, 

260, 261 ; Land Acts, 275, 287 ; Local Government Act, 

291 

James I., 99, 102, 108 — no, 112, 115, 128 — 130, 171 — 179, 

184 — 193, 195, 196, 203 — 206, 214, 215, 221, 222 
James II. (Duke of York), 228, 229, 232 
Jameson Raid, 294 
Japan, alliance with, 300 
Joicey-Cecil. See Cecil. 
Jonson, Ben, 205, 216 
Juliers, siege of, 106 

Keet, Elizabeth, Countess of Salisbury, 233, 234 

Kiao Chau, 295 

Kimberley, Lord, 292 

Kitchener, Lord, 297 

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 136 

KnoUys, Sir William, 165 

Laguerre, Louis, 135 

Lake, Elizabeth (Lady Roos), 127 — 130 

Lake, Sir Thomas and Lady, 127 — 130 

Lambton, Lady Eleanor (Lady Robert Cecil), 309 

Lansdowne, Lord, 297, 299 

Latimer, John Neville, Lord, 89 



324 INDEX 

Leicester, Philip Sidney, third Earl of, 227 

Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of, 38, 45, 56, 57, 60, 62, 63, 68, 92, 

172 
Lely, Sir Peter, 136 
Life Peerage Bills, 261, 262 
Lorkin, Rev. Thomas, 126 
Lowther, J. W., 299 
Lyminge, Robert, 207 
Lytton, Robert, Lord, 256, 274, 308 

Manners, Elizabeth, Lady Roos, Countess of Exeter, 121, 122 

Manners, Frances, Countess of Exeter, 124 note, 133 

Manners, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, 230 

Mary, Queen, 30 — 32, 36 

Mary Stuart, 37, 44 — 47, 49, 55, 66, 80, 172 

Mather, Edmund, 50 

Maurice, Prince, 105, 106 

Maxse, Violet (Lady Edward Cecil), 309 

Maxwell, Diana (Lady Cranbome), 226 

Medici, Duke Ferdinand de', 103 

Molle, John, 125 

Morley, Lord, 282 

Nassau, Count Ernest of, 107 

Naunton, Sir Robert, 109, 147, 148, 221, 222 

Neville, Dorothy, Countess of Exeter, 89, 100 

Neville, Sir Henry, 189, 217 

Nieuport, battle of, 104 

Noel, Theodosia, wife of Sir Edward Cecil, 105, 107 

Norden, John, 77 

Norfolk, Duke of, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51 

Northbrook, Lord, 263 

Northcote, Sir Stafford (Earl of Iddesleigh), 269, 274, 277, 279, 

280, 285, 286, 288 
Northumberland, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Duke of, 23, 24, 

27, 29, 30 
Northumberland, Sir Henry Percy, eighth Earl of, 89 
Northumberland, Henry, ninth Earl of, 197 
Northumberland, Algernon, tenth Earl of, 226 

O'Neill, Conn, 19, 20 

Orde-Powlett, Myra Rowena Sibell, Marchioness of Exeter, 145 

Orrer}^ Charles Boyle, fourth Earl of, 137 

Orrery, John Boyle, fifth Earl of, 137 

Oxford, Edward Vere, seventeenth Earl of, 57 — 59 

Oxford, Henry Vere, eighteenth Earl of, no, 123 

Pakenham, Georgina Sophia, Marchioness of Exeter, 144 

Palmerston, Lord, 251, 252, 254 

Panama Canal, 295 

Paper Duties, repeal of, 251 — 253 

Parker, Archbishop, 16 

Parliamentary Proceedings Bill, 261 



INDEX 325 

Parnell, C. S., 282 

Pauncefote, Sir Julian (afterwards Lord), 295 

Peel, General, 248, 255 

Penjdeh incident, the, 281 

Pepys, Samuel, 208, 209, 225 

Percy, Sir Henry. See Northumberland, Earl of. 

Perrot, Sir John, 1 11, 112 

Peterborough, Earl of, 230, 231 

Philip III. of Spain, 126, 127 

Philipp, Sir David, 7, 9 

Philopatris, 11 

Pitt, William, 306, 307 

Port Arthur, 295, 296 

Portugal, Convention with (1890), 289, 290 

Poyntz, Isabella, Marchioness of Exeter, 142 

Prior, Matthew, 136 

Puckering, Sir Thomas, 126 

Purbeck, Viscount, loi 

Quarterly Review, the, 249 — 251, 255, 257, 275, 305 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 150 — 152. 166, 167, 179 — 184 
Raleigh, Lady, 181, 182 
Redgrave, Richard, 244, 245 

Reform and Reform Bills, 250, 251, 254 — 257, 261 
Rich, Anne, Lady, Countess of Exeter, 133, 136 
Richmond, Duke of, 298 
Ridolfi Plot, the, 49 
Robsart, Amy, 38 

Rochester, Robert Carr, Viscount, 189 
Roos, Lord. See Cecil. 

Roos, Elizabeth Manners, Lady, Countess of Exeter, 121, 122 
Roos, Joan, 9 
Rosebery, Lord, 290, 301 
Ross, Bishop of, 51 

Russell, Lord John (afterwards Earl), 251, 254, 261 
Russell, John, Lord, 20 

Russell, Lady (Elizabeth Cooke), 20, 156, 157, 168, 217 
Russia, war with Turkey, 268 ; in the Far East, 295, 296 ; agree- 
ment with (1899), 296 
Rutland, Edward, third Earl of, 121 
Rutland, John, fourth Earl of, 125 note 

Salisbury, Earls and Marquesses of. See Cecil. 

Salisbury Circular, the, 270 

Salisbury House, 242 

Samoa Convention, 295 

San Stefano, Treaty of, 268, 270, 272 

Saturday Review, the, 249 

Scudamore, Viscount, 134 

Seycelds, the, of Allt yr Ynys, 4 — 6 

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 131 

Sheffield, Lord, 199, 218 



326 



INDEX 



Shrewsbury, Earl of, 150, 202 

Shuvalov, Count, 270 — 272 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 57, 59 note 

Sitsilt, Sir James, 2, 3 

Sitsilt, Sir John, 2, 3 

Smith, Sir Thomas, 100 

Smith, W. H., 285, 286 

Sneyd, Rev. William, 139, 140 

Somerset, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, Duke of, 21 — 25 

Southampton, Earl of, 165, 207 

Southampton, Countess of, 217 

Spanish-American War, 295 

Spenser, Edmund, 77 

Stafford, Sir Edward, 67 

Stamford, Earl of, 123, 124 

Stuart, Arabella, 181 

Sudan, reconquest of the, 296, 297 

Suffolk, Thomas Howard, first Earl of, 207, 222 

Suffolk, Duchess of, 31, 39 

Sussex, Earl of, 63 

Tait, Archbishop, 260 

Theobalds, 40 — 43, 202 — 206 

Throckmorton, Sir Nicholas, 45, 80, 84, 85 

Tradescant, John, 209 

Triple AlUance, the, 287 

Tufton, Anne, Countess of Salisbury, 233 

Tufton, Lady (Frances Cecil), 217, 233 note 

Turkey, war with Russia, 268 ; Armenian massacres, 292, 293 

United States of America, 294, 295 

Venezuela, 294 

Vere, Lady Bridget, 217 

Vere, Sir Edward, 114 note 

Vere, Sir Francis, 103 — 105 

Vere, Sir Horace, 109, no, 113 

Vernon, Emma, wife of Henry Cecil, 138 — 140 

Verrio, Antonio, 135, 136 

Victoria, Queen, 142, 300, 302 

Villiers, Sir John, Viscount Purbeck, loi 

Walsingham, Sir Francis, 59, 62, 63, 68, 75, 121, 159, 172 

Warwick, Earl of. See Northumberland, Duke of. 

Wei-Hai-Wei, 296 

Wellesley, Lord Charles, 141 note 

Wellington, Duke of, 141 note, 242, 243 

Wentworth, Wilham, 63 

West, Lady Mary Catherine, Marchioness of SaHsbury and 

afterwards Countess of Derby, 244 — 246 
Westmeath, Marquess of, 240 
Whichcote, Isabella, Marchioness of Exeter, 145 
Whitgift, Archbishop, 70, 71 



INDEX 327 



Wilberforce, Bishop, 302, 303 

William II., the Emperor, 294 

WilUam IV., 242 

Wilson, Thomas, 207 

Wimbledon Hall, 94, 97 

Winchester, William, fourth Marquess of, 93, loi 

Windebank, Thomas, 80 — 88 

Wingfield, Anthony, 202 

Winwood, Sir Ralph, 106 

Wissing, William, 136 

Worcester, Earl of, 207 

Workmen's Compensation Act, 291 

Wothorpe House, 98 

Wotton, Sir Edward, 218 

Wotton, Sir Henry, 174, 186 

Young, Robert, 232 

ZoucH, Sophie (Viscountess Wimbledon), 120 



B.«ADBURY, AciNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND TONBRIDGE. 



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